Hyperspace  The Journey
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Very AU. Instead of inventing warp drive, Zefram Cochrane developed a different engine that took Man to the stars. How much will change, and how much will be the same and how much will change?  Read and find out.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Star Trek, but I do own the Hyperdrive and time travel idea. Some ideas are from Stargate and from Doctor Who.

**Hyperspace. - The Journey.**

**Flight of the Phoenix. **

Zefram Cochrane felt as if his heart had plummeted into his intestines, which was understandable considering this was his first time in space. Cochrane hated flying, he preferred train travel. He was strapped into his pilot seat after being pushed into it by the gravity as the fuel rockets accelerated them into space, unable to move, and he felt as if the weight of History was sitting on top his puny human shoulders. He looked at the bright blue planet next to him, his mouth open and his eyes wide as he took in the incredible panorama he was seeing.

" Wow!" Cochrane gasped. The scientist thought back to the way he was before the launch of his ship, how drunk he was...stupid, small. How pathetic he was then. That was all going to change, from this point on he was going to change his life around.

Lily Sloane, his co-pilot, was following the same gaze as her friend. She'd been worried about Zef, how drunk he was, but now he seemed like a different person.

" It's so...cool," Lily said, hardly able to find the right words to describe what she was feeling.

" Yeah," Cochrane replied, glancing over at Lily. She was beautiful with her dark skin and eyes, but like most people born in the last 40 years, her life had had terrible disappointments. For a moment the scientist wondered what would come from the test flight, what consequences...would Man finally grow up, and leave the cradle on Earth? Would Man start peacefully explore the Universe? Cochrane hoped so, and he hoped the ECON would be disbanded soon when the discovery of space flight was made.

" Okay," Cochrane said, looking over his three man crew which consisted of himself and Lily and Mark Hardy, their engineer. Hardy, like Cochrane and Sloane, had never been in space before, but he looked like he needed to be pulled back to reality. " Lets bring the FLT drive online."

When Hardy realised that attention was bring drawn on him, he snapped out of his daze. Leaning over the console, he started to get to work. Cochrane smiled.

Half an hour later, the three man crew started making preparations to make the jump. Hardy was checking the systems, looking at the gauges and computer screens, " Plasma injectors - online, fusion bottles nominal. Taps activated with energy entering capacitor, we'll have to watch the taps Zef, it's still a prototype and I don't like the idea of an overload."

Zefram nodded, understanding the problem, " Yeah, okay. Keep an eye on the taps. If it looks like the levels too high, turn them off and we'll run on the fusion bottles."

Hardy nodded, and Cochrane considered the problem. It had taken him months to come up with the taps, but there were so many issues with them, and since Cochrane had had to work with substandard pieces of crap it was hardly his fault. Mark was right, the taps could be a hazard, and the last thing they needed on top of being in space was an overload or they'll never get home.

Lily was making the calculations for the jump. She was using the best computer she could've found, and it was lucky it was still in one piece. Carefully she inputted the data, and a few moments later the input was on the screen and accepted. " I've set the jump to take us past Mars." She said to Zefram and Mark, then she turned her attention to Mark, " Do you think there'll be any problem getting home?"

Even though the question was directed at Hardy it was Cochrane who answered, " As long as we don't go too far out of our solar system, we should be fine. Any further then there will be problems."

Lily didn't like that answer, " What if something goes wrong with the navigational computer?"

Cochrane took off his hat then he ran a hand through his short cropped hair. He'd heard this all before but he was so close to breaking the FLT barrier that any risk was acceptable. But like Mark and Lily even Cochrane had doubts, but this was all he had. He'd spent most of his life planning and building his engine.

" We do have a spare nav computer," he told them, trying to keep his patience. " But we need to keep focused, and we should be fine."

Not mollified the others looked at each other. Zefram didn't like the looks, " Charge the nacelles before there is a fault."

Snapped out of their staring contest, the other two co-pilots got back to work. After a few moments, Mark reported, " Nacelles fully charged, FTL drive ready."

Cochrane acknowledged him with a grunt, checking over his own instruments, " Let's do it then," He said with butterflies in his stomach. Lily gave a small but nervous smile. A philanthropist named Micah Brack had introduced Lily to Cochrane when the physicist had met with Brack and discussed with him the principles of his Faster than light drive ship. Lily and Cochrane had discussed the best way to design a practical vessel to test the drive, but the problem was technology and resources were limited due to the war that had left the planet in ruins. Electro-gravitic propulsion was impractical since Cochrane hadn't the resources to make the ship possible. The only way for the Phoenix to rise was to use rocket engines. Cochrane hadn't been overly pleased with the idea, but he knew there was no alternative. It took Sloane six months to scrounge for enough titanium just to simply build a cockpit, and another 5 months to build the field nacelles for the ship. Whilst she was on her self appointed mission, Lily had had time to reflect on the project, and she'd hoped the existence of Faster than light travel would help Mankind rise from the ashes, and put an end to the suffering Man had endured. But Lily knew that the scum of the Econ would love to extend it's hold on the rest of the galaxy. Unless something dramatic occurred to change all that.

The Phoenix, powered by the ion engines and the subspace field, sped away from the Earth, moving faster than any other ship. Subspace had been discovered in 2048, but the problems on Earth had been too great for anything other than theoretical ideas to be made. One of them was simply to use subspace to send communications even deeper into space, but others were to use it for space propulsion, but the means for that were seen as laughable. The Phoenix resembled a rocket from the outside, but there were differences. Instead of wings the ship had nacelles, two of them, which were on pylons held away from the hull of the ship. The Phoenix's history had been colorful; it had once been a nuclear missile. Zefram Cochrane had thought it ironic to use an instrument of mass destruction to create a new turning point in the history of the Human race.

Cochrane saw three forks in the junction; one, the Phoenix would be destroyed and with it any hope. Cochrane hoped that first option was far from reality, the Phoenix's hull was reinforced with titanium alloys that Cochrane had spent months perfecting. The experiments, both practical and theoretical, showed the journey time was instantaneous. But Cochrane wasn't exactly sure what the stress would do to the Phoenix. That old experiment had been with a probe, specially made and designed. The Phoenix was crude in comparison, the nuclear missile was fragile in comparison. It had taken the scientist months of hard work with Lily helping to use titanium alloys to strengthen the hull.

Two, the flight would be successful. It might also usher in a new era. The existence of other worlds and new civilisations should help erode the existence of ECON and other organisations like it.

But the third alternative was much more horrendous. The ECON might find the Phoenix and the FTL drive, and steal it. They might build a fleet of warships and go on a rampage in space. And Cochrane would be responsible for it.

Inside the cramped control cabin, Cochrane flicked more controls and checked the stability of the field strength. When he was satisfied with the readings, he ordered. " Engage."

The Phoenix's nacelles glowed blue as the subspace field increased in power. Space was warped as the two sides of the conduit were brought closer together. At the end of the field near the nosecone and a point where the field tapered, the elasticity of the subspace field acted like a slingshot. The Phoenix shot forward in a flash of blue light into the hyperspace window.

The hyperspace conduit journey time lasted for over a minute. The journey ended as soon as it started. The Phoenix shot out of the dimension quickly, the momentum carrying the small ship forward. Cochranes hands worked over the sublight controls, using the momentum to carry the ship forward but stopping it quickly.

" Throttle back," Sloane ordered.

The Phoenix turned around, showing on the transparent aluminium panels a small blue-green dot in the distant sky. All three Phoenix pilots gawped in awe as they saw the floating orb.

" Is that...Earth?" Lily asked in a reverent whisper. Cochrane said nothing, with his heart pounding in his chest he activated the hyperspace telescope, a smaller device similar in concept to the hyperspace drive he'd invented. It was a primitive version to what he expected to be created in the future, but it worked well enough when he used it to study the stars.

The screen came up with a view of the Earth, the digital view incongruous with the smaller orb seen in the cockpit windows. The three pilots could see the cloudy atmosphere over the Americas, Europe...they could see half of Africa but they couldn't yet see Asia.

Cochrane looked around the cockpit of his ship, checking the status monitors. He desperately wanted to find out the status of the engines, but his co-pilots were still gawping at the view of Earth. Hating himself for doing it, he switched off the screen and brought his friends back to the here and now.

" Alright," Cochrane said, holding off any protests with his hands. " Lets check her over. Can the hull take another jump?"

The question brought both co-pilots back to reality, along with realisation that if they jumped again then the hull could collapse like a paper bag. Lily checked over the hull, checking the strength. " The hull's okay." She reported after double checking her findings; she wanted to go home and she didn't want to die in a collapsing ship in hyperspace. Cochrane nodded, going over the data on his own console.

Hardy was checking the power taps into hyperspace. Since the journey had been finished the taps had been opened up even more, allowing a more uniform amount of energy to enter the ship. " The power taps are open even more Z, the trip through hyperspace has opened the matter bridge even more."

Cochrane had expected that, " I thought so. But do you think we can go back into hyperspace again? I don't fancy spending a year getting home."

Mark snickered lightly, but he knew that Cochrane's point was a valid one so he kept his humour to a minimum. " The hyperdrive looks okay, but I'm heading back into the engine compartment to take a look." He added, unstrapping himself. He grabbed a handle to steady himself as he floated upwards.

He'd opened up the engine compartment hatch when Cochrane floated towards him. " Take over here, Lily. Gather as much info on this sector as you can."

Lily nodded, focusing on the science consoles infront of her. She checked the screens and computer databases. The trip through hyperspace had already filled half the computer already, and the hyperspace telescopes were gathering tons of data on the outside of Earth's solar system.

Cochrane was feeling queasy as he and Mark Hardy floated inside the engine compartment and he held on with both of his hands on the handles that steadied his. The room just as cramped as the cockpit. Cochrane and his team had spent a lot of time gutting the missile of all the unwanted bits whilst keeping most of the components.

The hyperspace drive was a cylindrical device with an inverted cylindrical ovoid through it which glowed a bluish white. This was the hyperspace tap, a hole which siphoned energy off from the higher dimension. Cochrane watched as Mark examined the precious device, making suggestions as he watched his friend.

Zefram Cochrane had been working on the hyperspace drive for the good part of his life, starting out when he'd gathered information from the Linear Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The LHC had been online for a couple of years, and in that time it discovered much about the structure of the cosmos, including the higher dimensions. The universe was made up of 12 dimensions - 4 of which were known to Humans. Length, breadth, height and time. For a long time these extra dimensions were believed to exist only in theory, but quite a few scientists believed these dimensions, which were believed to be smaller than a single drop of water, and these dimensions also brought into existence the knowledge of numerous micro universes, including the substrate in space known as subspace. It was these micro universes that Zefram Cochrane devised his hyperdrive technology. The knowledge of how to access them was beyond modern physics, but Cochrane came across a propulsion theory devised by a physicist called Miguel Alcubierre, and it was a miracle too. Cochrane had spent years trying to work out how to better go about his plans to construct a hyperspace vessel. He pored over the numerous theoretical papers about previous faster than light engine designs, and then he discovered the warp drive theory and the wormhole theory. Taking his own hyperspace equations and the warp and wormhole equations, Cochrane was able to create a hyperspace engine. He tested it, sending a probe through a small closed off conduit in a lab before World War three truly exploded. The probe gathered tons of information, and Cochrane held that information, fearful that the ECON would kill him and use the hyperspace technology to destroy the world.

When he was in hiding as the bombs fell, Cochrane had time to kill. He spent a lot of time going over the probes data and discovered that hyperspace travel could be made on a planetary scale, and used for building hyperdrive engines for intergalactic travel, teleportation, hyperspace telescopes that used small versions of a conduit to make starcharts of incredible quality. Another discovery was the hyperspace tap, an energy source that reminded Zefram of hydroelectricity. It was similar too, the taps energy mode allowed high levels of energy to enter a circuit, and it was stable and renewable.

Excitedly, Cochrane studied the energy applications of hyperspace, and he discovered that a single drop of hyperspace energy held more power inside of it than the energy in a sun.

After the war ended, Cochrane spent the next ten years going over his notes, hoping to share them with other scientists still alive. His time in Montana gave him the opportunity to put his theories to work.

The locals had settled near a missile complex, and there was a massive nuclear missile in the complex, still working. Understandably, the locals were frightened that the bomb would go off, and they found Cochrane, who they knew to a be physicist and knew of their work. They found him in his caravan, going over his hyperdrive theories, and they told him about the missile, and Cochrane, knowing how scared they were, agreed to help them even though he knew he'd do most of the work in disarming the bomb. Taking a geiger counter, Cochrane went into the complex, and checked over the missile. The silo had everything he needed to disarm the missile; it had robots, disposal bays for the radioactive material. To be honest, Cochrane had his doubts that it could be done, but he went along anyway to satisfy his rampant curiosity. Zefram Cochrane made local history by becoming the first person since the war to actually enter the silo.

The visit was both fascinating and disappointing at the same time, fascinating to Cochrane but disappointing to the locals because the nuclear material couldn't be removed. Cochrane spent weeks going over the thing, and then it occurred to him; why should he wait for a convenient power source when he had one already? The plutonium was fine, it was perfect for creating a small hole into hyperspace and allowing energy to trickle into the tap. The scientist had then spent the next few years going over his designs, working with people like Lily and Mark into building a hyperspace ship.

Now this.

Mark looked up from his work, " It looks good."

Cochrane smiled. It was time to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

First Contact.

The Phoenix wasn't the only ship in the area, in fact there were two, both travelling at warp speed, and yet they both detected the Phoenix as it travelled faster than light, and now both their crews were debating how best to investigate this new development. One of the ships was like a metal pterodactyl, and the other was a sleek ship, denoting a species of incredible aesthetic value. The pterodactyl was crewed by three people, each of them wearing solemn expressions that showed little emotion. They wore long robes, and their regal movements showed a species that had been travelling in space for many centuries. They were Vulcans, a race of humanoids who'd once fought a war that had almost annihilated their people. The study of logic yielded a new philosophy of suppressing the emotions, and presenting a stoic and emotionless culture on the outside, keeping their violent tendencies hidden so then they would never again be on the cusp of oblivion. The Vulcan people had spent the next 1,500 years rebuilding their world and their society, forgoing emotion because they saw it as too volatile. Unfortunately, it also meant that deep down they'd become an arrogant people, looking down on other races and seeing them as irrational because they hadn't embraced logic.

The Vulcans had been studying the galaxy for centuries, surveying their neighbors and updating their knowledge. It would mean time and meetings. They were passing a solar system at warp 3 when they detected a signal on their sensors.

" Captain," T'Mir, the science officer, said and drawing her superior's attention. The Captain turned around and gave his subordinate his full attention,

" Report," Seval ordered.

T'mir was still studying the sensor on her computer, " The sensors have just detected a subspace distortion in the nearby system. It is not warp technology as we know it, but it is a form of faster than light drive."

Sarek, the youngest of the three man survey crew, asked, " There is a primitive culture in this region of space. They may have developed a faster than light drive," The statement was a logical one, and one the Vulcans knew warranted first contact. The Vulcans had a prime directive that stated they were not to meet new species until they developed warp technology. But this was difficult since T'Mir's scans had already determined that there was no warp signature. Did that warrant a meeting?

Seval considered. The Humans were already known to the Vulcans, the High command had discovered that the Humans were advancing quickly, even more so than any other species so far met with by the High Command. Sevel decided to take the chance.

" Set a course for the planet. Warp six."

* * *

><p>As the Vulcan ship approached Earth, the other ship was also travelling to the planet. This ship was crewed by people that weren't from Vulcan. Their planet was much further away. They were a joined race, connected to a lifeform which, after joining with many specially trained people, could gather lifetimes of experience. This unique relationship, coupled with their ability to learn over many years, even stretching into centuries, made them one of the most scientifically advanced races in this section of the galaxy. They were known as the Trill. Scientifically advanced, their technology was on par with the Vulcans.<p>

The science officer, Yanas, reported a sensor finding on her console, " Captain, sensors have detected a subspace distortion. Bearing, 345-890."

The captain, a Trill male called Ahjess, frowned from his own seat. He was, like his crew, unjoined with a symbiont, but that didn't mean he wasn't experienced with unusual phenomenon. Connecting his own console to the science station, Ahjess examined the readings, his brow furrowing even more when he looked the readings over. " It doesn't look like a warp field, though there are similarities," he said finally. " What do you make of them Yanas, do they resemble any known warp field configuration to you?" He asked the science officer. Ahjess had already decided the answer was no, but he needed a second opinion.

Yanas had already deduced it wasn't a warp field, but she double checked her readings with the ships computer. The Trills had explored a vast amount of space, making contact with many races, and encountering many variants of warp technology. But this was different.

" No," she reported finally, turning in her chair to properly speak to her commanding officer, " it reads like a warp field, but there's no subspace bubble. No space contraction in the subspace field. Whatever made it didn't go into subspace at all."

Ahjess's frown deepened, " What?"

The engineering officer on the bridge, Selin, was going over the science stations readings, and using his engineering expertise, added his own opinions to the situation, " What ever made that reading didn't go into subspace at all, in fact subspace was barely affected. I can't give you a better reading, sir, we need to track the source."

The astronavigation officer, a girl younger than all the crew by a good few years, piped up, " I've got it as well. The same distortion was near a H class world,"

H class meant habitable, with a cloudy atmosphere, water, and plant and animal life.

Ahjess's head snapped up, " What habitable worlds are in this system Emony?"

Emony worked on her console, " A planet called Earth. The planet's been surveyed, the people that live there resemble us, only they don't have our spots. There've been several expeditions to the planet. Our last report showed they'd fought a major global war, and the planet's cultural environment was violent."

Yanas wondered aloud, " Could they've created some form of faster than light drive?"

The doors to the bridge opened, and two Trills came in. Kell and Jobel, they were laughing at something, and they stopped when they saw how serious everything was on the bridge.

" What've we missed?" Jobel asked, a grin on his face which quickly fell, replaced by the professionalism that was only seen on people who'd spent a long time in space. Ahjess smirked at his first officer, ignoring his lack of decorum. He filled both his officers in on the situation, and Kell, who was the xenosurveyer on the mission, and an expert on various species, rushed to her console. " Computer," she snapped, " display file on the species known as Humans,"

The screens came alive with text and images.

" Okay, humans, the only intelligent and sentient species on Earth. They achieved spaceflight earlier and faster than we did, and it attracted the attention of the Vulcans. The Trill space institute sent a ship to observe their first Moon landings. Since then a total of eight Trill expeditions have been launched to study Humanity, and the reports state that in spite of their almost constant government and cultural issues, which extend into warfare, the Humans have an intricate society," Kell reported reading the data on the screens in front of her.

" And the humans have fought a war not long ago," Ahjess said, going over the new information.

" Yes," Kell replied, her eyes not leaving the screen.

" Now it seems they've developed a faster than light drive," Emony put in.

Yanas turned in her chair, " Are we going to make first contact with the Humans captain? They must've developed a form of faster than light drive, no matter how unknown it is, and made their first major steps into deep space."

Ahjess didn't reply, and Selin took advantage of his silence to add, " Captain, the Humans must've made a form of interstellar propulsion, and I've already picked up what looks like an ion wake and a weak subspace field, not strong enough for a warp field, but strong enough for sublight speeds for a spacecraft. The configuration looks primitive, and no advanced race would use them, not even the Klingons or the Tholians. It must be the Humans."

" The last report was human spacecraft were too primitive," Kell argued, " they don't even have impulse engines, but they do have ion propulsion and solid fuels." Her report didn't make the captain feel any better about his decisions and Ahjess was still in thought, plans and counter plans circulating through his brain as the thought of first contact went into his mind. First contacts were tremendously tricky and dubious situations, and the prospect of meeting a race that had only just left behind a major global war. He turned to Kell, " Kell, in your opinion, should we alter course, and travel to Earth, risking our own lives for a first contact?"

Before his cultural officer could answer the question, Emony swung round, her voice betraying her surprise but not leaping over the ancient and collective calm of the Trill species. " What do you mean, risking our lives?"

Selin caught on, " Didn't you listen to Kell when she said the humans always seemed to be in a state of government crisis, not to mention warfare?" He looked curiously at his captain, " Do you think we're in danger?" He asked, the last fact making a warning dong echo in his head. Who knew what would happen if they landed ? Ahjess sighed wearily, " Welcome to the problems inherent in first contact. Alright," he said at last, coming to a decision, " plot to a course to Earth, but we're not going without taking proper precautions. Charge our weapons and shields, Jobel break out the small arms, just in case." He looked over the crew, seeing that everyone was looking at him. He was pleased by that, " Three of us, myself, Kell and Yanas will investigate the possible faster than light readings and spacecraft. The rest of you will remain here, and if the humans attack us, beam us back on board and destroy the site." Ahjess's face was grim with the prospect, " No matter what, if the Humans are aggressive, we must not allow our ship to be captured by a primitive and paranoid race."

Silence dominated the bridge as the crew took in the reasons behind their captain's reluctance towards opening a first contact with the Humans, and the crew could see the reasoning. Ahjess was right that the Humans might try and steal their technology, killing them in the process. It was uncomfortable, thinking about their own possible deaths.

The silence was broken by Emony, her voice not quite as lively as it usually was, " Course ready captain," she reported quietly.

Ahkjess nodded, " Engage, warp 5."

"Yes, sir,"

* * *

><p>As their ship jumped to warp, the Trill crew went calmly about their duties. As the ship grew closer to the Earth, Ahjess gaped at the beautiful sight of the planet. " It's beautiful," He whispered. This new planet reminded him of his own world, green with vegetation, bright blue with water. Why, Earth looked more like a jewel than a planet of dirt. Why the Humans called their own planet " Earth " was a mystery, this planet should've been called water, or something similar. The crew agreed, but yet Yanas had to report the hideous truth of the planet's present state, " Yes, it's beautiful. It's also polluted." She added, spoiling the awe. As far as Yanas was concerned, a planet was a planet. " I'm detecting a massive amount of pollution in the atmosphere, they obviously had some kind of transport or energy system that chucked out massive amounts of gases into the atmosphere. Their rainforests are also damaged, showing massive levels of deforestation. On top of that there's radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere, but they've diminished by ten years."<p>

Unhappy that the Humans had been greedily destroying their own world, Kell added to Yanas's report, " That was when they launched their war," she said.

" Captain," Selin said drawing attention to himself when he noticed something on his screens, " I've got a lock on that ion and subspace field. It leads down to one of the continents. Am sending the co-ordinates to the helm."

Emony nodded, " I've got them,"

Ahjess nodded, delighted in his crew's efficiency, " Very good, take us down. Prepare for atmospheric landing."

Yanas had been studying her own displays for the last few minutes, " I've also got another signature captain, a warp signature." She looked up from her console, " It's Vulcan."

Emony frowned, " What're they doing here?"

Jobel answered her question, " The Vulcans explore and survey planets and cultures, they send out expeditions to worlds to update their files. It's more than likely they sent out an expedition ship, but they detected the Human ship and altered their heading, landing on Earth."

* * *

><p>Zefram Cochrane gaped when he saw the incredible ship come out of the clouds, lighting them up with an almost supernatural appearance, Lily and Mark standing nearby. Their eyes wide in awe, they watched the magnificent ship land slowly. For Lily, it was like gazing on a huge pterodactyl, straight out of a time travel novel, spreading it's massive wings, legs first as it prepared for landing. As it landed, the landing gear engaged, emerging from the belly of the beast, tucked underneath glittering nacelles, resembling claw from some animal. Lily, her mind still on pterodactyls, thought of dragons.<p>

As the ship landed, two panels slid back and one descended gracefully to the ground, forming a ramp as the engines whined to a stop.

It wasn't long before the first person appeared, a silhouette forming in the doorway of the ship. The crowd hushed as they gazed on the first alien they'd ever seen in their lives. The alien stepped onto the top of the ramp, gazing speculatively around the crowd. Lily could see the figure was a man, or the races version of one. Whoever it was, the figure was wearing long flowing robes, topped by a long robe. Their version of a jacket, Lily deduced.

Tears came unbidden to Lily Sloane's eyes. The Phoenix had indeed risen, but it had risen in a way that neither she nor Zef had imagined. For the first time since the war, joy shot through into her heart. Lily had christened the Phoenix with the idea of the legendary bird that rose from the ashes in mind, but the rising had occurred in such a way that even now, seeing the alien ship and the alien on his ramp, Lily could barely see the consequences.

The alien walked down the ramp purposefully, and Lily saw two other figures in the doorway of the alien ship, but for now she focused her attention on the alien striding towards them. He, yes, Lily was now certain of his gender, was a truly handsome man with a solemn, but pleasant expression on his face. He had a strong jaw, smooth skin that was pale but had what looked like a greenish but olive tinge to it. As he stepped closer to the crowd, moving regally, Zefram stepped closer, moving determinedly forward, but Lily could tell he was nervous and yet excited. She could hardly blame him; alien contact had been a dream of scientists for years, with people constantly speculating and debating the existence of alien life, and yet here in front of her, was an alien, and now, striding slowly behind their leader, were two more aliens. Another male, just as handsome as the first, and a beautiful woman with her hair down up in a braid entwined with jewels.

The leader stopped infront of Cochrane, and took down the hood of his robe. Lily stared at the two pointed ears of the man, they were like gazing on an elf or a fairy, they didn't look freakish or ridiculous, but they looked natural and fetching. The alien raised his hand, palm out, separating his thumb, index, and his middle fingers and his two little fingers into a 'V'.

" Live long and prosper," the alien said, his voice in flawless and unaccented english, his voice pleasant but unemotional. Cochrane tried mimicking the gesture, once, twice, failed. Then he moved forward slowly, uncertain whether the alien would take offense, and see his movement as a threat. But luckily the alien didn't, he just waited, standing there.

Cochrane extended his hand, and the alien did the same. Their hands met in a firm but friendly handshake. " Thanks," Cochrane spoke clearly to the alien.

The alien inclined his head in greeting. " I am Sevel, captain of the T'plana'hath, representative of the Vulcan High Command."

Cochrane didn't have an agency to report to, so he said simply, " Zefram Cochrane, scientist and engineer," he turned to see Lily and Mark, " This is Lily Sloane, my co-pilot, and Mark Hardy, my engineer,"

The alien, Vulcan, bowed his head in greeting, " Our ship detected a faster than light vessel, originating from this world, and we came to investigate."

By this time the other two Vulcans had come up to their leader, and Lily noticed that neither of them seemed concerned about being here. They seemed nice and peaceful enough, but they seemed stoic.

Lily nodded in the direction of the female Vulcan, but she didn't have much luck. Mark, ignoring the feminine byplay, spoke up, " That was the Phoenix, our first hyperspace ship."

The female Vulcan and the other male quirked an eyebrow each. " Hyperspace?"

Cursing Mark's too eager tongue, and his own desire to boast about his engine, Cochrane hurriedly interjected, " Our new propulsion system. It uses a different dimensional plane to the one we inhabit." Cochrane pointed at the Vulcan ship, " Surely you must know hyperspace?"

Seval shook his head slightly, " No. Our ship uses warp technology."

" Warp technology, you mean your ship contracts space from the front and behind, making the ship ride on contracted space so then there are no relativistic side effects?" Cochrane asked.

The female Vulcan nodded, " You have a...crude grasp at the principle, but yes."

Cochrane nodded, rolling his tongue inside his mouth, " Our ship doesn't use warp drive, but part of the theory's present in the Phoenix's engine."

Before the Vulcans could continue, the rumble of another ship landing on the planet caught their attention. Slowly, another ship descended to the ground. It was larger than the Vulcan starship, and much longer. It was like a needle, to Lily it was like a futuristic rocket, only without the nose and the afterburners. It had long wings, and those wings resembled warp engines similar to those on the other starship.

Lily couldn't believe it, first they'd launched Earth's first FTL ship, they'd made contact with one species, and now it seemed they would meet another one on top of that. The ships landing was faster than that of the Vulcan ship, but the aliens leaving their ship was just as emotional and heart pounding as it had been for the Vulcans. As the crew stepped out, they glanced at the Vulcan ship before they walked over to the crowd. Unlike the Vulcans, these newcomers walked like Humans, and Lily could see that they resembled humans, only they had spots, like a cheetah running down the sides of their heads and necks. Their clothes were also similar to Earth fashion; they didn't wear robes, but their clothes were clearly meant for scientific, or war, missions. But Lily had seen war, she knew the kind of body language soldiers had, and these people were not soldiers. They were clearly concerned, anxious about something, and Lily wondered why. Then it came to her. These ships must have detected the left over results of the war, and they were clearly worried that by landing here they were putting themselves at risk. Lily couldn't blame them, she herself had problems with Man.

Like the Vulcans, there were three of these new aliens. A man and two women. She focused on the man, obviously these new aliens captain. He was tall, lean. He resembled a swimmer. Like Captain Seval, this new man was handsome, he had the look of a poet rather than a star captain, his hair was long and wavy. His eyes were like gleaming sapphires. Lily realised she was spending too much time gazing at this handsome specimen and simply turned her attention back to the two women.

The first one was older than the second, and whilst she was beautiful, Lily could see a stern but fairness to her face. Her hair was dark and done up in a bun with only a few strands out. The second one was younger than the other two, she was shorter with a thin heart shaped face with dark blonde hair, and brown eyes.

The new Captain bowed his head calmly to the Vulcan captain, raised his hand in the same greeting Seval had shown to the humans, " Peace and long life, Captain."

Seval raised his hand in the same gesture, and replied, " Live long and prosper." He didn't seem concerned that another race had chosen to meet with the Humans. For Vulcans, fact was fact, and it was illogical to shy away from it.

The new alien turned and smiled at Zefram, " Hello," he said, holding out his hand. Cochrane shook it numbly, surprised at the gesture. Later on he would realise that the Trills had simply studied Human customs as they landed their ship.

" Hi," Cochrane said, unsure of what to do. " I'm Zefram Cochrane, scientist and engineer," he said at last getting himself together, " This is Lily Sloane, my co-pilot," he gestured, introducing Lily to the tall alien. Lily did a crude curtsey, and was rewarded with a smile from the man and a grin from the younger woman. " This is Mark Hardy, my engineer. Between the three of us, we made the first faster than light jump."

Frowning slightly at the scientists wording, the new alien said, " I am Ahjess, of the Trill space institute. This is my science officer," he pointed at the stern young woman, " Yanas, and my xenocultural specialist, Kell," he added, pointing to the younger woman. Ahjess turned towards the Vulcan party, and said, " I'm sorry, but I don't think we've been introduced."

Seval made the introductions, and then asked the Trill, " I was unaware of a Trill science mission. I trust we did not inconvenience you?"

Ahjess shook his head, " It's alright, we were making a general survey of this sector in space when we detected the unusual emissions of what looked like a different propulsion system."

" The humans do not use warp technology, they use something they call ' hyperspace.' Is that not so?" Seval directed at Cochrane. The scientist nodded.

" That's right, our new ship uses an engine design that travels on a different plane." Cochrane said, then he received a brain wave. He didn't know anything about these two races, he didn't know if at the moment they were in the middle of a war he didn't understand, and he wasn't going to take the risk.

Hyperdrive was all humanity had to get back on its feet, and he wasn't going to just hand it over to two strange races he didn't know. A bargain formed in Cochrane's mind, and it had a win - win situation attached to it.

Pointing towards the entrance of the missile silo, Cochrane suggested, " Let's go and talk,"

A few hours later, they'd reached an agreement. Seval and Ahjess would speak before what was left of the government, and say they would be willing to help Earth. In exchange for their help, Earth would provide them with hyperspace technology when Earth started exploring space and they gathered their strength. Both captains were surprised by how generous the Human was, and they went back to their ships to make contact with their governments, but Cochrane thought the idea had merit. He knew it would take time for Humanity to get back together, but he knew one thing. With the help of the Vulcans and the Trills, Earth would and could be rebuilt, and they would unite and later they would go into the galaxy, and later the universe, to explore new worlds, to seek out new life. With the introduction of hyperdrive and the meeting of two different alien races, Humanity should be able to unite and put aside their differences. The future depended on it.

**Next chapter - 50 years pass, and already the changes can be seen. **


	3. Chapter 3

Hyperspace - The Journey.

The In between Years.

The invention of hyperdrive and the meeting with the Vulcans and the Trill changed Humanity forever, and as the years passed everything changed. Seval and Ahjess, with the permission of their respective governments, who were interested in the hyperspace technologies, spoke to the remnants of the government, and vowed to help Humanity to rebuild. The Vulcans, after reviewing Human history, were understandably concerned about allowing an emotionally aggressive species on the galaxy. The Trill were more or less the same, and like the Vulcans they were concerned about Humanity's history, but they decided to take a wait and see approach, and both races were interested in some form of payment for their time. They both realised Humanity wouldn't give them hyperdrive technology, not yet, but there was something they could be given in the meantime. Both ships had detected dilithium deposits in the solar system, untapped sources of energy, and since the Humans didn't need it they would nonetheless mine it for their new friends, and it wasn't long before both races took a unique interest in Earth.

For the next few years, both Trill and Vulcan sent emissaries to Earth, laying down the ground rules for diplomacy with both races. They provided medical and economic aid to the Humans, allowing them to rebuild quickly, but carefully.

Science and engineering, helped by the Vulcans and the Trills, advanced Humanity forward over the next half a century. There was one problem, the remnants of ECON and the other die hard elements of the Third World war, and in the 2078, the elements fought together in a war that lasted only a few brief months, using Trill and Vulcan technology. The final gasp of the war ended, and Humanity was finally free. Free of the insular and backward Eastern Coalition and the drug controlled soldiers. Whilst the Humans were happy, the same couldn't be said for the two alien races. Trill and Vulcan combined were far from happy or impressed with the savagery, and decided that they would limit the scientific and technical knowledge of the Humans until they were more civilised in order to be given it. It was only the idea of hyperspace that kept both races there.

After 2078, Earth started up the first Lunar and Martian colonies, and they established the first protocols of colonisation. It wasn't long before they both become self contained colonies, helped by the natural elements on both bodies in space. Both Mars and the Moon had their own and growing populations, and they rarely needed the help of the people on the mother planet and the Trills and the Vulcans. All over the Earth, hyperspace physics was studied, and new theories were made on it, expanding on the knowledge gleaned by Zefram Cochrane. All over the Earth, different and varied institutes became involved in the continuous study of hyperdrive technology. New minds with new ideas came forward, all of them studying the science of the higher dimensions, and making new theories. One team of scientists, led by Lily Sloane and Mark Hardy, the legendary co-pilot and engineer of the first Earth hyperspace vessel respectively, miniaturised the same and early technology Cochrane had developed to test the hyperdrive before he created the Phoenix, and used it to connect Earth to Mars and the Moon, and the asteroid colonies, but the small spacecraft in use were still in use to prevent failures in the new CHT system, CHT standing for Compressed Hyperspace Travel. The new invention, not requiring hyperdrive vessels, was used to survey distant worlds, linking them together with hyperspatial corridors that were powered by taps. Within a few years, CHT mapped and colonised, successfully, 50 planets, linked together in a CHT network of hyperspace corridors.

In spite of this the hyperdrive for starships continued, and it wasn't long before a merchant fleet was constructed, each ship powered by the latest hyperdrive engines, and thanks to the Trill and the Vulcans, they made contact and traded frequently with races like the Denobulans and the Osarians, as well as trading with Trill and Vulcan. The colonies didn't need to use cargo ships, thanks to the hyperspatial corridors. With the corridors, travel was like boarding a train, and moving simply from world to world.

CHT was also responsible for devising new and more imaginative safety precautions; instead of just colonising worlds, CHT worked slowly in colonising a planet. Colonisation in this case took a maximum of 5-6 years. The space agencies left behind on Earth realised that the exploration and colonisation of deep space, trade and diplomacy shouldn't be in the hands of other groups like CHT, and fortunately the other space faring groups agreed wholeheartedly with the decision. It took a few years, but eventually each group joined together, forming an organisation called Starfleet.

CHT and the cargo service had had years of encountering new races, and thanks to the formation of all independent groups into one whole organisation gave them a good way to exchange that information. The Denobulans, thanks to their medical knowledge, and sponsored by the Vulcans, helped Humanity solve the problems caused by diseases. They also provided them with the finer points of genetics, but this time it was regulated. The Denobulans had been sickened by the cavalier way Humanity had played with genetics, and showed their charges the best way to use it properly, and it wasn't long before genetic research became one of the most important sciences on Earth and the colony worlds. Thanks to the Denobulans, many humans, including Zefram Cochrane, went through a process called rejuvenation. This revolutionary new process took the stem cells and reversed years of damage, rendering the body younger and fitter. With this new lease on life, Cochrane threw himself into hyperspace research, and moved later on to another colony named after him in his honour. Cochrane would then spend the rest of his life travelling between the planet Cochrane, and to Earth.

* * *

><p>Zefram Cochrane waited for the meeting to start. He looked around the room as he did, walking nervously around. This meeting was important for establishing Man's future in space, even though it was pretty much already happening. It was 2124, and Humanity was already expanding into space, but Cochrane would've been happier to watch a fleet of ships leave Earth to explore those new worlds.<p>

The doors opened, and a tall man walked in. Cochrane smiled, " Hi, Henry, how's your kid?"

Henry Archer, the designer of the last three hyperdrive engines, smiled, " Hi yourself Z, how's the planet? It must be nice having a world named after yourself?"

" It has it's ups and downs," Cochrane replied as both men sat down. " How's the Mark 5 engine doing?" he asked curiously.

The Mark 5 engine, or the Mark 5 hyperdrive, was the newest hyperdrive engine being designed by the hyperspace research facilities on Earth, and Zefram Cochrane had sometimes came in to help them with their work. The Mark One hyperdrive was what the first wave of ships had been powered by, the Mark Two had powered the first probe ships into the nearest galaxies, the Mark Three ships were the cargo and simple passenger ships. Lastly the Mark Four would be responsible for powering the new Starfleet ships which would be built in the next few years. Archer had discovered a more viable hyperspace propulsion system, and he'd only needed to work on it.

The Mark Five engine, on the other hand, was to allow Humanity to leapfrog through the universe without resorting to using space warping with the same dependency as the older engine models. It was also the most trickiest engine to build and experiment with for that reason. Older hyperspace ships used the same basic space warping as the Trill and Vulcans had pioneered, and the older hyperspace ships did the same, warping subspace together, and creating a smaller hyperspace conduit. But the Mark Five hyperdrive engine was more ambitious, instead of simply using a mix of warping using the Alcubierre method, the Mark Five used wormhole theory more. Since wormholes were a more powerful warp field, it was expected that the engine would provide a faster effect than the older models.

The good thing was that CHT were contributing more and more to the theory, as they used shortened conduits for their planet side gateway network. Henry Archer had been working on the principles, using the old wormhole theories and equations, for years. It was his life's work. It was a good thing that more and more eager scientists were adding their own contributions to the science. Cochrane himself had been helping Archer and his team work on the theory, but he was making Archer see that by keeping warping then hyperspace travel would remain relatively the same. For a time it looked like neither engineer would succeed.

Then Emory Erickson had appeared, bringing forward his hyperspace beaming theory. Emory had been investigating, not hyperspace, but subspace, thanks to knowledge gleaned from Trill and Vulcan scientists. By studying subspace, he'd come up with an equation that showed not just how a wormhole could be created, but a smaller version could enable galaxies to be brought closer to Human reach. The one factor was that space was moving, and even space affected hyperspace. Erickson had created a fully functional wormhole teleporter, and it had moved him from Earth all the way to a laboratory he'd set up on a planet 67 light years away. The smaller device finished, now all that was needed to was build a fully functional hyperspace wormhole engine. Last Cochrane had heard, Archer had finished the ground work, and was now building prototypes for test bed craft, organised, at first, by CHT and then by Starfleet.

Cochrane approved of the move to link the space agencies together under one umbrella; each organisation, CHT amongst them, had had their own advantages over space exploration and colonisation. It was like on Earth during the old days, all over the world all sorts of separate scientific research was being done, and since it was announced that Starfleet would be a blending of all the space organisations, there was no more competition. It had been a while since Cochrane had last been to Earth, and here he was at the advisory meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to decide the best means of exploring the cosmos, and Cochrane, being the original inventor of the hyperdrive engine, was called in to offer his own opinion.

Archer nodded, " The Mark 5's coming along, thanks to Erickson's work on space movement. Starfleet've given me 4 test bed ships, and now all I need to do is simply provide a new engine for the testing. Theory's one thing, but practicality's another, Erickson was able to do his work because he had a smaller setup. Me, I've got spacecraft on my mind. I'm using a similar engine design to yours, Zef, but it's taking time."

Cochrane smiled, " Time's one thing we've got. How bout CHT, how've they been with your work?"

Shrugging, Archer sighed, " They snapped up Erickson's proposals for interstellar teleportation, but they've got no interest in spaceships. Their slogan's ' step through to the next planet in the blink of an eye,' but then you know that."

Cochrane did. He was in two minds about CHT and space travel, but the Phoenix had inspired many new approaches to the problem of interstellar travel, and he knew it. With CHT, you harked back to train travel pioneered in the late 1800s, and with Stafleet, science fiction mingled with real life. On one hand Cochrane admitted that some parts of CHT were practical, but in other areas he found them quite limiting. He wanted humanity to embrace both hyperspace teleportation, and hyperspatial wormholes to travel through space.

Cochrane asked the question he desperately wanted to, he hadn't had much interaction with them for years, and he wanted to know the latest.

" What've the Vulcans and the Trills done to help you?" Cochrane asked.

Archer snorted, " Zef, ever since you told the government why we weren't to give the Trills and the Vulcans hyperspace technology, both races have given us more than enough scraps of knowledge, but the Trills have helped as best they can. You should know by now that we're the only ones, to our knowledge, to develop hyperdrive science. Both races have sent scientists to advise the new generation of pioneers to the science you created and then handed over, hoping to gain an advantage over us. Unless we do something to keep them off our science, they might develop hyperspace technology and us it against other races. You know that."

Cochrane took his original question as a no, assimilating the news that the two races he'd made contact with were both impatient to receive their payment. The scientist had of course suggested that the hyperspace technology be kept away from Trill and Vulcan because he was afraid that their enemies would find and launch an attack on Earth. An Earth in the process of rebuilding itself.

As the years went by, and Earth was being gradually rebuilt, so were Earth's defences, enhanced by what was learnt from Trill and Vulcan technology, but after 2078, both races had limited their knowledge of weaponry from Human knowledge. Not that Cochrane didn't blame them of course.

So humanity had no choice but to develop their own weapon systems.

As Humanity learnt more about different species, with some help from the Trills and a smidgen of help from the Vulcans, they discovered more and more about how hostile some species were against each other.

Then Humanity met the Andorians, and then it wasn't long military specialists realised why the Vulcans wanted to get their hands on hyperdrive technology. The Vulcans and the Andorians had a very...tense relationship, and one Humanity had done it's best to stay clear from. Since First Contact, Cochrane had regretted telling the Trills and Vulcans much about hyperspace. Space farers were told not to repeat the same mistake, and instead the spacers sent out nowadays were told to say they used a different form of warp engine.

Cochrane's mind turned to the Vulcans and the Trills; out of both races he trusted the Trills the most, but he was more careful with them like he was with the Vulcans. Even though he had helped the government draft the first treaty between the two races, Cochrane had insisted that hyperdrive technology be kept out of their hands until Earth was ready. The Vulcans and the Trills hadn't been too happy about that, and occasionally they protested, but since the solar system was rich in dilithium, a mineral essential to powering warp engines, and useless for the Humans, there was always a compromise. That didn't mean some of the theory was given to both races, just enough but not all of it.

Forest, the new representative of Starfleet, entered the room, followed by Erickson. Forest had been serving the space agency, and CHT for 10 years, and he was the perfect man for the job.

He sat down and opened his suitcase, bringing out a number of PAADs. He pressed a control and a silencing field went up so then no one could listen in. This was a top secret meeting.

" As you know, the first Starfleet fleet's under construction, with the Mark 5 space fleet being planned," Forest announced, folding his hands.

Erickson learnt forward in his chair; Erickson was one of the few humans to live with being crippled instead of seeking treatment for his paralysis. The teleportation specialist's face was lined with interest, " So soon?"

Forest smiled, " Yeah, the new Starfleet cadets'll crew the new ships, and their commanding officers will recommend some of them for the new fleet. Our new explorers. We need the best. Some members of CHT'll transfer to the service, they'll probably be engineers."

" What about the Vulcans and the Trills, what do they say about these plans?" Cochrane asked with interest.

Forest's smile faded slightly, " The Vulcans are calling us reckless, they think we should stay in the solar system and earn our readiness. Whatever that means," Forest grimaced at the thought of those meetings where the Vulcans spoke but didn't make much sense. " The Trills, however, are far more supportive, but they say we should be careful. Command's not sure what to make of it, but it's clear that we'll be getting little support from the Vulcans. Command's policy states that we'll be ready, after the fleet's been launched."

" How do we do that?" Cochrane frowned.

It was Archer who answered, he'd had more participation over these meetings than Cochrane had. " When we launch our ships, they'll be equipped with the latest technologies we've got in terms of weapons, propulsion and sensor technology. As they travel, they'll be equipped with hyperspace transponder tags."

" What do they do?" Erickson asked curiously.

Forest sighed, looking weary as if he couldn't believe the idea. " One way of advancing our technology's to wait for our allies to give it to us, but that could take decades," Forest's face was dark at the thought of the Trills and the Vulcans. " Another is to simply develop our own technology, which we've been doing since the first colonies were established. The third's simple; whenever a ship attacks one of ours, we simply capture it, and use the transponder to allow a jump point to be opened. The technology falls into our hands as spoils of war. The facility's already established, and waiting."

There was a collective silence as what Forest had said sank in.

Henry Archer's voice was a whisper, " I thought piracy was banned, clearly not since we're gonna steal ships ourselves."

Forest sighed, " Command want to study various approaches to technology, and to help guide us as we set out to perform our own exploration missions. Besides, we've been given the Trill and Vulcan databases. There are quite a few races that have alerted us to being threats. One of them are called Klingons, their a warrior race, and given our circumstances a few decades ago, the Klingons would've slaughtered us without anyone being able to do anything about it. The knowledge of alien threats mean that our newly acquired morals have to be put aside. Not all alien ships are to be sent back, but those that attack our ships. The crews will be told that command ordered them for research."

Cochrane locked his cynical gaze on Forest, " There's one flaw with your plan, how do you intend to capture the ships without damaging them?"

" A few years ago, CHT R&D experimented with hyperspace radiation as a power source, and they discovered some side effects. Hyperspace is awash with it, and we use it as an extra power source now after we learnt how to use it properly. The radiation's toxic to organic tissue, but it doesn't dissolve it. CHT passed the data onto Starfleet when the organisations were blended. The radiation's shot out into a pulse, saturating the cells and killing them. Higher doses destroys technology. Stafleet are working on making smaller hand weapons which use it. We call them the hyperspace neutraliser." Forest explained.

Cochrane shook his head, " I don't like the sound of this, but okay. So our ships'll be protected." Then he remembered what Forest had said before. " What's a jump point?"

Forest replied by inserting a data chip into the table, and ran the holographic viewer set into the table. At once a hologram appeared, showing what looked like a hoop with a massive bulging sphere on the side. " CHT came up with it, after one of their workers watched Lost in Space from the 1990s, where the family were going through their version of hyperspace to another planet to prepare a new homeworld for the human race, only their hyperspace technology was such that if they engaged their drive without a gate then they'd end up lost in space. Babylon 5, the TV series, used something similar, which is where the worker got the idea for the technology from. This gate, however, works differently." Forest touched another control, showing what looked like a metallic mushroom, the head was bright red and the stalk was black. " The transponder is keyed to the gate's frequency, and the gate opens a conduit underneath the ship, creating a gravity whirlpool in the vortex. The ship's then brought in via tugs, and then the ship's taken into the yard for analysis. The ship'll be taken apart, the databases removed, and what we glean from them will be put on the next generation ships."

Archer's son, Jonathan, had plans to become a member of Starfleet, and he knew that if he served on the ships, then he would be forced to watch as these alien vessels were taken. Henry was sure his son would object, but then again, once he was told the reasoning he wouldn't. He asked the next question based on that thought.

" Will the NX fleet be equipped with transponders?" He asked.

Forest nodded, " Yes, they will."

The rest of the meeting was decided on how best they could make the new Starfleet work even better than Command intended.


	4. Chapter 4

The First Captured ships.

The jump gate was installed in a remote part of the galaxy, that of Facility 4. It was a solar system with an asteroid belt and a number of moons and planets. It was the perfect place to study alien hardware, plenty of laboratories were constructed on the moons and the surfaces of the planets with a smaller spacedock facility for storing ships captured, the asteroids connected via incredibly strong metal tubes that acted like walkways but were in fact linked by monorails for easier access. There wasn't a CHT gate anywhere - the place was supposed to be secret, but there were short range teleporters that allowed a second travel system. The only way Earth could send ships was by a robot freighter, which increased the air of secrecy about the facility. The last thing Earth and Starfleet wanted was the Vulcans to discover this facility, they'd only go on about how violently irrational humans were, and the Trills would be disappointed.

Three weeks after the new spacefleet was launched from Earth the transponders were activated from the long range space craft. Within a day, the facility received a Klingon D5 battlecruiser, an unknown alien ship belonging to a species which had attacked the starship Cumberland without provocation and a Suliban cell ship. The crew at the research outpost had been surprised, the Vulcan database said the Suliban were a relatively primitive and peaceful culture; the record on the starship that made contact with them and the ship itself belied the Vulcan's knowledge on the ship and the species. The scientists went over the database of the ship, and they were surprised when they found the computer full of information about something they called the Temporal Cold War, and factions amongst various races with one goal; to destabilise history, but the scientists couldn't find any details about the long term effects. The scientists learnt more about the Cold war when the next ship came through the gate; a Tholian webspinner. They'd had to scale the environment down for any examination; Tholians required extreme life support, and if the hyperspace rad gun hadn't killed the pilot then the cold would. It was harsh, but the ship was vital to the research of the facility. As the scientists pored over the database, they found that the Tholians had developed a form of interdimensional spy tech that enabled them to see into different realities as well as time travel technology, and they found research in an alternate universe where the Tholians there had developed an interdimensional gateway. The scientists realised that they could do the same thing. They found a dead star, where they detonated a tri-cobalt warhead in the gravity well. The explosion created an interphasic rift, and from the scans of the ship it was unstable. Whilst other scientists pored over the time travel data and made their own experiments, a small group maintained watch over the dimensional rift they'd created.

They didn't have long to wait.

The crew brought back 5 ships from the interphasic rift, leaving a monitoring station behind to see if there were any more ships. The facility crew were surprised when they saw an Earth ship with them, only a ship belonging to a class that they didn't recognise, the registry number read NCC 1764 USS DEFIANT, the probe sent in after the ship had appeared indicated the ship came from the 23rd century. The next ship was smaller than the planned NX class starship, which was still a while off whilst the researchers worked and Starfleet worked on establishing rules on exploratory and science missions. It had a long 'neck' two nacelle like pods, and a control tower on top. The crew were excited when they sent the data to the labs about where the second ship came from. The first ship had 'disappeared' in Tholian space, but the second ship had been in the Pegasus galaxy, millions of light years away. The scientists saw two possibilities; one, the ship had travelled to the galaxy from another galaxy. That meant the ship could use a propulsion system beyond what the Vulcans had already. Two, the ship had originated in the Pegasus galaxy in the first place. Which ever it was, the ship represented an important find.

The third ship was a futuristic rocket, long and sleek, with two rocket engines for sublight propulsion. Preliminary findings showed that the ship's nosecone could separate, leaving the main body of the ship to remain in orbit. On the aft stabilising fin it read XL3. The probe sent in after it had appeared found it had left it's universe only 6 days away from Vega colony.

The fourth ship was similar in size, only it looked like it had come from a science fiction movie. A saucer, small and simple, had appeared after the rocket by a day, and the astronomical probe sent in had left it's universe 16.7 light years away from Earth, in the star system of Altair.

The last ship was larger than the last three ships pulled into the universe, it looked like an inverted Y with a long neck miles long, and the scans indicated the engines used, not impulse engines, but gravimetric engines. The probe sent through after the behemoth had emerged from the rift reported that the ship had only been on the other side of the galaxy.

* * *

><p>The scientists held a meeting after the preliminary findings were made. Crews were sent to examine the ships, and found they all came from Earth, in a roundabout sort of way. The salvagers found that each ship came from a different time and universe, and the computers had been checked for information on the universes the ships originated from.<p>

Kellman, the director of the facility, wanted to have a pep talk after the findings, and to direct the directions of the research into the technologies after 3 days of investigation. " Right," Kellman began, leaning over the table. He looked over the team he had, and was delighted to be in the company of these eminent scientific minds who knew their stuff - Gillan who was in charge of the Daedalus team, Patterson who was leading the Defiant's salvage team, Andrews, the XL3, Timothy, the saucer, Evander, the team leader of the Y shaped vessel. Manheim was there, his leading dimensional physicist and Lisbeth Vanger, his assistant.

" What do we know so far?" Kellman asked, getting the ball rolling.

Patterson began first, " I'll go first, and go over what we know about the Defiant."

" Please."

" The Defiant's a Constitution class starship, belonging to a version of the Starfleet we know today, only a part of an interstellar alliance called the United Federation of planets," Patterson began. " The engines of the ship are comparable to ours, in the sublight category anyway."

Gillan, one of the Daedalus crew, frowned, " What do you mean?" she asked.

Patterson sighed, " That ship doesn't have a hyperdrive. Our findings have found a dilithium matrix and warp coils, this ship uses a warp drive engine. The speed of the ship, on the Vulcan and Trill scales, goes up to Warp 9. We've got a ship from a universe where Zefram Cochrane created a warp engine instead of a hyperdrive engine."

Manheim, one of the group studying time travel, was looking over a padd which held a copy of the Defiant's history files spoke up, " According to these records, the Defiant's computer has something called the lightspeed breakaway factor, or the slingshot effect."

Kellman frowned, " What does that do?"

" A Time warp, using the gravity well of a sun," Manheim explained, " The warp engines would need to accelerate very fast, using a very precise formula to navigate through time, and then it would be launched through time. i recommend, as part of the time travel research lab, that the Defiant demonstrates this method, and we take readings on the journey so then we can produce a time machine without using a spaceship."

Kellman nodded thoughtfully, and noted it down on the personal PADD in front of him, " Alright, I'll authorise it. Prep a formula and your equipment. Take a minimum crew with you." He said to Patterson and Manheim. Both men nodded, and then Manheim looked at his PADD again. " Sir, the Defiant's computers also reference something about parallel universes. One of her sister ships, the Enterprise, met the counterparts of another universe when they transported aboard."

Kellman whispered in the silence, " Another universe, they'd discovered another reality? When, what happened?"

" It happened a year before the Defiant was lost," Manheim reported; as one of the scientists investigating time travel, he had the expertise to explain over Patterson. " The crew of the Enterprise was negotiating for mining rights for dilithium, Halkan. The landing party had provided proof that their Federation was peaceful, that they were explorers, and whilst the Halkans believed them, they couldn't allow them access to the deposits on their world."

" Why?" Gillan asked.

" Because the Halkans are a peace loving race," Patterson explained, resenting Manheim for explaining the more fascinating parts about the ship his team were going over. " They believed that one day the Federation would go to war, and considering what we've found out about the conflicts the Federation have with the Klingons, the Gorn and the Romulans, that fear's more than realistic."

The scientists didn't know what a Gorn was, but they pressed on, " Carry on," Evander ordered. " What happened?"

" Beaming back to their ship, the landing party was displaced by a transporter accident because the ship was in the midst of a severse ion storm. The landing party was transported, not to their ship, but to an Imperial ship, the ISS Enterprise, and their counterparts, who were on the planet for the same reason, were transporting back to their ship at the same time," Patterson said, making a face. " The Imperials had established a Terran Empire, and from what the landing party determined, was based on conquest. Kirk, the captain of the Enterprise in both universes, examined the historical files on the ISS Enterprise, and he found that first contact was known, in the Imperials universe, as First Conquest. Zefram Cochrane made a warp flight, and drew the attention of the Vulcans. The crew of the T'plana hath were slaughtered by the humans there, and the ship was captured, the technology studied. Within a short space of time, the Terran empire arose and took power, launching lightning assaults on the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Tellarites, the Orions and numerous other species, enslaving them." Patterson finished, looking ill at the idea of their own people enslaving sentient races in another universe.

The silence around the table was deafening, until Kellman asked, " Just the Vulcan ship? Not the Trills?"

" No, the Trills weren't involved in First contact in the universes the Defiant comes from, or the Terran Empire's universe," Manheim replied. " Kirk also learnt, from first hand experience, that the rank structure on that ship, in that Empire, wasn't like ours, based on merit. It was more survival of the fittest, with the strong taking the lead, assassinating their superiors. Indeed, Kirk's counterpart was under orders to destroy the Halkans if they didn't give the dilithium to the Empire."

Kellman shuddered, and wondered what could make the Human race become like that. Oh yes, not long ago Humanity was a truly nasty piece of work, but even then they had morality. " What did Kirk and his crew do about this?" He asked quietly.

" Kirk was forced to stall for time, his chief engineer worked on a solution to return them back to their own reality whilst the Ion storm remained. Back in their reality, the mirror counterparts from that empire, didn't hide their identity, and the science officer, a Vulcan named Spock, who'd also discovered the light speed breakaway factor by the way, realised these barbarians weren't his crewmates. He had them locked up, and started to work on things from his end. Like his captain, he'd worked out what had happened. The mirror Kirk asking, " where's my personal guard?" was another giveaway. They got back, and the chief engineer supplied for the record the transporter logs, which will help with research into the possibilities into multidimensional travel." Manheim finished. " But considering the violent ways of this Terran Empire, I suggest caution in case we decide to visit it, and to not allow any technology to fall into the Imperial Empire's hands."

Everyone nodded in agreement, the thought of an interstellar empire clearly tyrannical becoming intergalactic wasn't a thought that was pleasant for anyone at the meeting. Kellman asked Patterson, " Is there anything else about the Defiant you wish to add?"

" The computers of the Defiant use duotronic processing, the relationship between subatomic structures and data processing," Patterson reported, enjoying the looks of excitement about this new toy to study. " The only problems are the guy who invented it hasn't been born yet, but we can take some of the principles from the Defiant's computers, and integrate them with alien designs, but the rest of the technology's too complex for current day science to handle properly. The crew of the ship, over 400 in all, died in madness as the ship passed through the rift."

Vanger whispered, " Is that true of the others?"

The other members of the team nodded, then Gillan spoke for all of them, " Autopsies show that each of them had died a few days before they entered the rift. But we're partially responsible." She added, looking down.

Kellman read between the lines as he reigned in the feeling he and his crew had killed hundreds of people for their technologies. He had other concerns to go with their consciences, the technologies of the Defiant were a hundred years ahead of what they had already, and the knowledge they had the ability to revolutionise the ships they had already was compelling, but they were mindful of the temporal paradoxes they were in the midst of. They would need to move very cautiously.

" Alright, continue your research and schedule a slingshot before the ship's taken apart." Kellman ordered. " Who's next?"

Nervously, Evander said, " I am. The ship me and my team are working on is the King Arthur, a Victory class destroyer from the Interstellar alliance, an economic and technological consortium between the powers of that universe, established after the Shadow war."

" Shadow war?" Vanger asked.

" In that universe, there were beings that were older than the other races. They were called the First Ones, and they were the most advanced races in their reality. They prowled around the galaxy for millions of years before they decided to leave, and two of their races were chosen to remain behind to care for the Younger races. One of these was the Shadows, and the other was called the Vorlons. Both races had highly different philosophies, the Shadows believed strength came from conflict; you fight wars and your knowledge of science and technology's doubled. It's true enough, look at Human history. The Napoleonic wars brought breech loading weapons, and the First World war gave us tanks, battleships. The second world war gave us nuclear energy, and the Third World war gave us hyperspace. The Vorlons believed in order and obedience, and merely wished to bottle up potential. The Shadows wouldn't stand for that, and they waged wars with the Vorlons. Then they had an idea, to use the younger races as cannon fodder because they themselves couldn't prove by themselves which one was right," Evander shook his head the craziness about it.

" So, they manipulated other races, including Humans?" Patterson asked in horror as the repercussions became clear to his mind.

" To an extent. At the time of the war, Earth was in hell thanks to a ruthless political regime, and the Shadows stopped Humanity from waging total war. A group of Humans on the space station known as Babylon 5 fought the war, with the help of other races. This alliance was the foundations of the Alliance." Evander said.

" What's this Babylon 5's significance?" Manheim asked curiously.

Evander took a deep breath, he'd personally read the historical files on the King Arthur, but he needed time to check it all out. He'd managed to make a basic summary of the events though.

" In their 2228, a hostile species known as the Dilgar began to wage desperate wars against the League of Non aligned worlds, an alliance of alien cultures which was disbanded when the Alliance was established. The Dilgar's sun was going to go nova, so the Dilgar waged desperate wars to gain more planets. The file on the Dilgar state they were xenophobic, and those aliens they captured they killed, enslaved or experimented on. The Earth Alliance, their version of our own government, had made contact with an alien race known as the Centauri after they'd discovered transmissions. The Centauri gave Earth jump gate technology, which in turn gave them hyperspace." Evander explained.

" Is their jump point technology like ours?" Gillan interrupted. But Kellman was more interested about the history of the universe, they would get to the technologies later so then they wouldn't lose track.

" We'll come back to that later," Kellman interjected. " Carry on, Evander."

Evander was silent for a moment, trying to figure out where he'd finished before the interruption, then he carried on. " At first, the Centauri let Earth use their jumpgates until Earth created their own. In return, the Centauri were given as payment art and cultural items. As they expanded their empire, Earth learnt about the Dilgar war when the Centauri, who'd had an empire that had started to decline. The Dilgar had started to take over in their wake, as nature abhors a vacuum, and Earth decided to intervene. In 2230, the League were losing a battle in the Tyree system. The EA sent a force there to intervene, and with their unexpected alliance the league prevailed."

Andrews whistled, " I bet the Dilgar loved that."

" So much so they sent a fleet of ships to destroy the Earth colony on Orion VIII. Unfortunately the Earth fleet intercepted and descrambled the transmissions, and instead of a small garrison, the Dilgar encountered a fleet of 600 ships waiting for them. The League with the EA pushed the Dilgar back to their home system, whose danger was now escalating. The EA confiscated all the Quantium 40, a mineral that makes the Jump gate technology possible. Not long afterwards the sun went nova, and the Dilgar were exterminated." Evander replied, finishing off quickly.

" I don't see how this war led to a more violent war," Timothy pointed out.

" I'm coming to that," Evander replied before explaining further. " After the war, the Earth Alliance continued to expand, their help against the Dilgar opened doors to other races, but they heard mention of a mysterious race called the Minbari. The Centauri said they'd had dealings with them in the past but nothing in recent years prior to the Dilgar war. The Centauri republic had been expanding in all directions, but when they met the Minbari, who were the oldest of the Younger races, they never opposed them. Arrogantly, the Earth alliance ignored the Centauri's advice, and sent a small fleet of ships instead of the one. The fleet was commanded by Captain Michael Janowski, of the EAS Prometheus. Janowski was shown, in later records, to be a fame seeker, always after glory and medals."

" Not the sort of captain Starfleet would want," Vanger observed.

" No, especially after what he did. In fact, the incident in question made Earth force change many of its First contact procedures. The fleet met a Minbari convoy, and it didn't occur to Janowski they might be out there for a different reason. The Minbari were on their way to the homeworld of the Shadows after learning their old enemy was returning in force, but they got sidetracked by the Earth fleet. The Minbari are divided into three castes; warrior, worker and religious, and the warrior caste has this tradition to show respect. The open the gunports of their ships to show what they're capable of. Janowski, whose ships were being affected by the powerful scanners of the Minbari ships, was already panicking, and he opened fire on the Minbari ships, killing their leader, an icon amongst the Minbari people." Evander said grimly.

" Doesn't the Earth alliance know the definition of the word diplomacy?" Vanger whispered.

" It gets worse. The Earth alliance had believed they could take on anyone and anything after the Dilgar, but the Minbari were infinitely more advanced than the Dilgar. And it showed in the war that came. From 2245 to 2248, the Minbari launched a war of genocide against Earth, but in the old days, according to the King Arthur's files, the Minbari had believed Humans to be cowardly savages, but after fighting them, in spite of fighting against a powerful enemy and not giving up, word of their bravery reached every Minbari. The Minbari religious and worker castes began to feel as if they'd gotten it wrong, but the warrior caste didn't. The fought the war like savages from what I gathered, and they exterminated every human they found, even those who couldn't fight back." Evander spat angrily at the thought of a more advanced race attacking humans because of a terrible misunderstanding. The rest of the scientists felt the same anger at the thought of an alien murdering innocent children whose only crime was for being Human due to the actions of one man and one crew.

" In 2248, the final battle came at the Battle of the Line, where the Minbari launched an attack on Earth itself. It had been inevitable since the Minbari war machine was sweeping through Earth space, destroying everything they found. In order to allow the civilian population flee in time, the Earth force fleet gathered into one massive armada, and prepared for battle. As the battle progressed, well it's not surprising but Earth were losing. Then, surprisingly, they surrendered to the Human force." Evander looked like he'd seen a pig fly, and was having a hard time believing it.

" Why?"

" The Minbari made a discovery. They believe that their souls are reincarnated in each generation, but for sometime their whole had been...different. Some Minbari seemed less like Minbari. At the Battle of the Line, they found out that their souls had been going to the humans, because a human in the future went back in time," Evander said, looking at Manheim pointedly, " to deal with the last Shadow war, and give the Minbari new technology."

" Technology which would be used in the future against Earth," Kellman pointed out. He sighed, " Alright, so the Minbari lost some of their souls, but what happened? What was the reaction?"

" The whole galaxy was stunned by the surrender, but the Minbari said nothing, not even to their people because they weren't ready for the shock of knowing that their warriors had been killing their own souls. The EA wasn't told until 10 years later. In the meantime, two things started to change. Earth unveiled the Babylon project, building a space station in neutral space to promote peace with other races so then the Earth Alliance would never have another war. Earth started expanding in space again, looking for new technologies so then they wouldn't have to fight a war like that again." Evander answered.

" But then the Shadow war came," Kellman pointed out.

Evander told them, laying down the events of the war. Explaining the Narn - Centauri war, and the Minbari government's breakup due to their arrogant complacency. The Shadow war sounded brutal, and the introduction of telepaths to jam the organic technology the Shadows used. For ten minutes Evander explained how the Shadows herded ships into a corral to destroy them, a plan that was thwarted by Captain John Sheridan's alliance. Evander summarised the end of the war, the encounter with the hostile alternate universe of Thirdspace due to IPX, an Earth alliance organisation's mental takeover by the jumpgate. Then Evander explained how Earth at the time had been under the brutal regime of their president, a man who'd allowed the murder of millions of innocent people until Sheridan organised a force to stop him. The aftermath was the foundation of the ISA. The King Arthur had been built after the Drakh plague had nearly destroyed all life on Earth in retaliation for the Shadows defeat.

" The King Arthur is 2,990.31 metres in length, crewed by 150-600 people, with a troop carrying compliment of 2,000 troops. The ships powered by a Quantum singularity and fusion reactors. The singularity powers the gravimetric field, which propels the ship and generates artificial gravity as a byproduct. Her armaments include 1 super quantum discharge cannon, 8 ordinary quantum discharge cannons, 6 heavy duty neutron cannons, 12 fusion beam cannons, with multiple anti fighter pulse cannons along the hull, with missile batteries included. Her hull is a combination of plasteel and polycrystalline alloys, the latter from the Minbar. The circuitry is crystal based, and some of the technology is derived from that of the First Ones, making it one of the most advanced ships of it's time." Evander said.

Everyone looked around the room, chattering excitedly at the prospect of taking the crystal tech apart to learn from it.

" You said earlier that the King Arthur uses jumpgate technology, but how does it work?" Gillan asked patiently. Everyone quietened down so they could hear the reply.

" Hyperspace travel is basically opening a hole in space time, extending into hyperspace, and simply using the sublight engines to navigate along a beacon network. From all accounts, the hyperspace method in that reality is treacherous. It's like travelling through storms on the sea, only hyperspace's awash with gravimetric currents. You can't stop engines in hyperspace because if you did then you'd be carried off and you'd get lost without a chance of escape. The jump point is formed with the help of a mineral called Quantium 40, and thanks to the starcharts marked with known deposits in that reality, we can mine the substance at our leisure. Quantium 40 is radioactive when it's broken down, but when it's purified it's incredibly powerful as a power source." Evander said.

" Alright," Kellman said, bringing an end to the discussion on the King Arthur. " Your orders are simple; take the ship apart, learn about the jump engine technology and the black hole reactor. See what we can use them for, if they have any uses. Bring in metallurgists to examine the alloy of the ship, and see if we can use it for our ships in the future. I'll have Starfleet locate the Quantium 40 planets and prep them for mining."

" The polycrystalline alloy is capable of refracting energy beam weapons, if we can duplicate that then our ships should be able to withstand incredible punishment." Evander added.

" Good. See to it. The polycrystalline alloy's to be researched, and tests to be made with probes to find out the best combination for our future ships. Now, I want to know about the Daedalus." Kellman said, looking at Gillan.

Glad to be reached at last for her own summary, Gillan went on to explain about the Daedalus. The Daedalus was a class 304 deep space cruiser, and it was a hybrid of alien and Human technology.

" Quantum dating indicates the ship is a hundred years from the past, which would corroborate what the probes data gathered when it emerged. But the technology on board, in some cases, is highly advanced. Instead of circuit boards throughout the ship, my team and I have found crystals doing the computer work. Her technology includes teleportation technology in two forms, one is a conventional beam technology, and the second involves transport rings which teleports the subject to another set of rings. Her engines are similar to ours, they use sublight engines, only they're not impulse engines. The Daedalus uses an Asgard hyperdrive, which is an alien race, and one of the most advanced species in that universe, and their hyperdrives are really fast. The intergalactic hyperdrive means she can travel to and from other galaxies in just a few days. They were given to Humanity as a gift after years of friendship. " Gillan said.

" When I saw the ship, she didn't have the nacelles we have on our ships," Patterson said, " How does the hyperdrive in that universe work?"

" The hyperdrive doesn't warp space. The ship opens a subspace window instead, which opens a conduit to hyperspace and simply dives into it. The conduit carries the ship to its destination, and depending on the power source, it can make the journey to another galaxy in just 4 days, the maximum being 18 days, again because of the power source." Gillan replied in excitement.

The development of hyperspace technology was one of the most important engineering and scientific works in United Earth space, but the problems being that the scientists had trouble with warping space. The idea of a hyperspace engine opening a window that didn't involve space warping was a compelling one, inspite of the work of Henry Archer and Emory Erickson, whose work into hyperspace beaming still involved hyperspace warping. It was the warping of space and subspace problem which made many scientists work hard on building a new hyperspace technology, even though early experiments involved opening holes into the higher dimension, the problem being that any destination would be totally random.

" What does the hyperdrive do, create some form of wormhole?" Patterson asked curiously.

" In effect, it's wormhole like, but its not a true wormhole, but that's not important. We should be able to work with the technology, and make improvements soon. For some reason this hyperspace level isn't far from subspace, but the window technology's the piece of technology that my team and I'm interested in. We can work on the window idea and make experiments from it, and simply add it to the hyperspace beaming theory since the travel time is next to none. The window activator is installed on the ship, and we can simply download the computer database to see how it works before we add it to our own design." Gillan replied.

" Okay, learn about the window science, but what else is special about the ship?" Kellman asked.

" Since the Daedalus is an alien upgraded Earth design, the ship features technology centuries more advanced than anything the Vulcans or the Klingons have. Their shields, which are integrated on the Daedalus, don't just simply take hits. They absorb the hits to strengthen the shield strength." Gillan replied.

" The Defiant's shields simply take the hits, but they don't do anything like that. If we combine the technologies then we can create a shield technology that would be stronger than any race in this universe." Patterson hypothesised.

Gillan nodded, " That's a good idea. The transporter beams are also more powerful than the transporter technology we've seen since the Starfleet started sending ships to this facility. They're so powerful that they can beam a skyscraper away without using too much energy. I've already given the two transport technologies to the teleportation research division. They should hopefully develop working prototypes soon."

" Speaking of energy, what powers the Daedalus?"

" The Daedalus is powered by a subspace capacitor, it's similar in many ways to our own hyperspace taps, but the capacitor simply sucks subspace energy from subspace without creating a permanent tap. Before the capacitor was installed on board the ship she was powered a Naquadah generator, which would be strong enough to power the ship and the hyperspace drive. Naquadah seems to be a vital element in that universe. Its a superconductor. The plans for both are in the database, and the rest of my team are going over them now. The circuity is crystal based, like the King Arthur," she added, looking at Evander before she carried on with her own report. "The ship also features a burnt out alternate reality drive, apparently its the prototype. I can give you the device tomorrow Dr. Manheim." Gillan said, directing the closing sentence at Manheim.

Manheim nodded, " Thank you."

" What're it's armaments?"

" The Daedalus is armed with railguns, only these use naquadah enhanced rounds, nuclear fission and fusion missiles, plasma beam cannons. She's a predator. One of her weapons is the Horizon missile platforms, which are basically ten nuclear missiles enhanced by this naquadah. They destroy planets if the quantity is high." Gillan finished, using a more dramatic rather than a scientific ending.

" It destroys planets?" Andrews asked in horror.

" Yes, but it's still a piece of technology we should keep. There's already the chance that humanity will meet hostile lifeforms as we move deeper into the stars. We might encounter ships that can't be damaged by conventional weapons." Gillan suggested.

" I'm sorry," Manheim said, " I don't like that."

" Neither do I, but Gillans got a point. Who knows who else is out there?" Patterson asked.

Kellman looked at Timothy hoping to get off the subject, " Okay, what can you tell me about the saucer? We'll get back to the Horizon missile debate later." He added, looking around the room. The director glanced at Timothy, who started talking.

" The saucer belongs to United Planets Federation, the Earth government of their reality. The saucer doesn't have a name, just a registration number, C-667e. She's powered by a nuclear reactor, and is propelled by sublight engines that creates a weak gravimetric field around the ship, and produces artificial gravity as a byproduct. From the sounds of it, it's comparable to the gravimetric field that propels the King Arthur," Timothy looked at Evander, who nodded his agreement with the theory. " The FTL drive is referred to as a Quanto gravitic hyperdrive, which enables the ship to travel 17 times faster than the speed of light. The ship teleports through a hyperspace window, only less sophisticated than the one on the Daedalus, and more harmful to living tissue."

" Why do you say that?" Gillan asked, intrigued by the similarities and subtle differences Timothy had described.

" The travel has a jet lag effect on the crew, who have their lives suspended in special booths on board the ship." Timothy explained. " My team have been taking one of them apart to see what makes them work, but what I want is to see how their drive works properly. Hopefully, by combining the Quanto gravitic hyperdrive with the technology of the Daedalus, we should develop a hyperdrive system that teleports the mass of the ship through space without unnecessary warping." Timothy finished looking excited with the prospect.

" Agreed. Learn what you can." Kellman replied.

" What's the ships history?" Manheim asked.

" The United Planet's federation is geared for colonisation in deep space as well as typical interstellar exploratory missions, the database is extensive, filled with tons of information about planets outside the charted areas of our own universe, which will prove invaluable. It's what united humanity instead of a third world war, but they haven't met many alien races. The Federation started when the missions to the moon in chemical rockets, and later using nuclear propulsion the other planets were colonised. After the discovery of hyperdrive, the whole galaxy was within reach of the Federation, and that was what galvanised them even more. The hyperdrive of the ship is the reason of the ships design. There's something about a lenticular design that makes the drive much more effectively, and from what we've learnt about the effect on the crew, the saucer shape of the vessel stops anything worse from happening to the crew." Timothy reported.

" Have they met no races?" Patterson asked. The thought of not having a First Contact to spark off that time of growth and change after global chaos was...strange to him. Even the ISA ship had come from a universe where wars seemed to be waged everyday.

" A couple," Timothy admitted. " But not many. Two years prior to the C-667e, one of her sister ships the C-57D landed on Altair IV, and discovered the remains of a highly advanced civilisation, the Krell, who possessed a massive machine which dominated a massive chunk of their planet's underground."

" Do you think a similar civilsation exists in this reality?" Manheim asked in fascination at the idea.

" It's possible." Timothy replied.

Kellman made another note on his PADD, " I'll have Starfleet look into it." He promised, his mind racing over the prospects of investigating an advanced civilisation's remains and technology. It would be a great scientific and archaeological find of the last 400 years.

" Tell them to advise caution. The expedition lost quite a few lives due to unforeseen consequences. Don't ask me what, I need to check on the database for more information."

" Do so," Kellman ordered patiently.

Timothy nodded.

" Last, but not least is Dr. Andrews. James, what can you tell us about the XL ship?" Kellman asked.

James Andrews took over. " The XL3 is a World Space Patrol ship from the 21st century. She's powered by a nutomic reactor, a sort of fusion reactor," he added when he saw the looks of confusion on their faces. " The ship doesn't have any transporters, no impulse engines. Instead it uses advanced chemical rockets for short range travel. She uses a hyperdrive, but it folds space on a subspace layer. But don't let her design fool you, she's fast and those engines allow a passage to the Moon in half the time it took for the first Moon landings in our own universe."

" Impressive, we'll have the rocket engines examined," Kellman promised.

Andrews knew his boss well enough to know when he wanted the rest of the briefing done. " The XL3, and her sister ships, were built in the 2050s. At that time, space travel was limited to the solar system, powered by chemical rockets and nuclear propulsion, but the database features designs of solar sail ships and ion rockets. Then a scientist called Professor Matthew Matic invented the hyperdrive motor, and the design was snapped up. The World Space Patrol was established, and since then the system is only found by a few companies that deal in mining, exploration or colonisation."

Patterson folded his hands, " You said that the XL3 folds space by a subspace layer, what's its range?"

" She can make a jump over a 100 light year distance, but she can travel much further, powered by her rocket engines. I've already got my people examining the system, and melding it with the warp theory we received from the Vulcans. So far, we've only made computer simulations, but we theorise that we can create a prototype of the velot space folding hyperdrive that can work like multiple warp fields, only fold space on itself, providing a ship with the power to overtake a Vulcan starship without effort." Andrews promised.

Kellman looked thoughtful, he just needed something clarified, " Judging from what you've just said, I take it they didn't have a third world war either?"

" No," Andrews replied, shaking his head. " But they have had problems in the past from terrorists, and lately the Aquanaut branch of the World patrol has been fighting lifeforms under the sea."

" Under the sea? What exactly is the World patrol anyway?"

" In that reality, the Supreme Headquarters Earth Forces is tasked with maintaining the peace in Earth, wherever on the planet. It could be in the skies, in space, or under the sea. Military forces, like the World Navy, World Army and the World Air Force are also under the umbrella. The World Security Patrol handles the patrol work. In the case of the World Space Patrol organisation, the main concerns were space pirates, mercenaries. Even with the security of the Space patrol, there were some cases of espionage where the hyperdrive tech was stolen, and integrated on space craft for piracy. The directorate changed, policing the space ways for human as well as alien attacks on Earth." Andrews said.

" Alright, we'll go over the history of that universe in our own times. What can you tell us about the other pieces of technology on that ship?" Gillan said, growing bored with the lectures they were getting, no matter how interesting they were. It was one thing to listen to them and another to read them to get an idea for yourself.

" The radio system uses a crude form of subspace communications, called a neutroni radio. Apparently, according to the ships computer, two years before we got hold of the XL3, an alien race placed neutroni controlled bombs on all the XL fleet, and it resulted in damage to one of the ships. The XL ships also have a highly thought out system for regulating their air supply; they're fitted with hydroponic gardens in their mid section, and they work in conjunction with the life support system to remove the CO2 in the ships air. I recommend we do something similar. The XL ship is designed to land on planets, it's designed to separate the nose cone from the rest of the body, and be used as a reconnaissance ship, only if it does the fuel supply's at risk seeing as the tanks aren't that large. In fact, the historical file indicates that when one of the ship's sister ships, the XL5, the same ship that wqas damaged by the neutroni device, made planetfall on a planet called Triad, a world similar to Earth, only three times the size, the gravity pull meant that the ships commander, Colonel Steve Zodiac, had to use the retro rockets more than once to slow the descent. The result was all the fuel was burnt off. Fortunately, the inhabitants of that planet, also three times larger than the average human, were in the process of building their own space program, which also created massive nuclear explosions due to a fault in the fuel formula, and they were able to help the crew." Andrews said, looking fascinated at the prospect of worlds similar but different to Earth by their gravity.

" The people in that universe don't rely on spacesuits, although there is a storage room onboard the XL3 as a precaution. Instead of cumbersome spacesuits, there's a supply of what they call oxygen pills."

Kellman scrunched up his face, " Oxygen pills?"

" Yes, they work in conjunction with some sort of jet pack to shield the body from the worst of the vacuum, preventing damage to the body. The pack generates a low intensity forcefield," Andrew mimed the field only a few centimetres from his own body as he spoke, " The pills simply give the individual the air they need."

" Fascinating, download the database of the ship. Focus of the systems you've told us about - the oxygen pills, the radio system, the hyperdrive, the hydroponic garden. Ignore the rocket engines for the time being. Focus on the faster than light system, and work on creating a working warp level space fold drive." Kellman ordered.

" Wait, are you saying we should build a hybrid ship?" Manheim asked, looking interested.

The hybrid idea had been going for years amongst scientists, even in Starfleet. The Vulcans and the Trills, in the hopes of gathering hyperspace technology, and knowing of the inquisitive nature of Humanity, had decided to give the basics of warp theory, a technology both races had been using for centuries. In that time, the first warp ship had been developed, but Starfleet were always on the look out for more practical propulsion technologies. Starfleet had been constructing simple hybrid vessels, and whilst they worked well, the scientists, engineers and command officers had noticed that the dependency of warping space made the ship a weakness in itself.

There were many in Starfleet, and around the colonies, who felt that relying solely on hyperdrive wasn't a good idea. Suppose something went wrong with the tap, or the field coils? How would the ship function? The logical and practical way around this problem was to build a fully functioning ship with two or more propulsion technologies integrated into the design. Starfleet command, Facility 4's biggest sponsor, was understandably interested in such ships even though hyperdrive was the norm for all Earth built starships.

Kellman looked around at all the faces, and nodded. " Yes. I am."

**The Daedalus is the alternate version of the prime Stargate Atlantis ship. The source I used, since I think the series was slightly boring, was the wiki.**

**The Defiant, as seen in Star Trek the Original Series, and in Star Trek Enterprise episodes ' In a Mirror, Darkly,' the source was my own observations, and the Star Trek memory alpha wiki.**

**The King Arthur, a sister ship of the ship in Crusade, the source used is the Babylon project and a few other websites.**

**The C-667e, a sister ship of the famous saucer seen in FORBIDDEN PLANET, the sources were Wikipedia and a similar site.**

**Fireball XL5, I got from the book Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation cross sections, written by Graham Bleatham, detailing Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet, among others.**


	5. Chapter 5

Hyperspace - The Journey.

The next wave.

The Defiant was moving through space towards the sector in space where the interphasic rift was. In the command chair was Thomas Gleason, who'd already fallen in love with the Defiant at first sight. She was beautiful and radiated power on sight.

" We're approaching the rift," Walker, the only other person on the bridge reported.

Gleason nodded. " Full stop. Let's see what's out there." Moving to the science station Gleason punched in a command on the viewscreen. The image showed another saucer, similar in design to the one already in the dockyard, only there were differences; there were bumps on the ventral side of the hull. The other objects were a sphere and two boxes, and Gleason magnified the screen on the two smaller objects, peering at them closely. The sphere was featureless, without any visible engines but he could see the faint outline of a door or a hatch as the sphere rotated in space. The boxes were just as featureless, but like the sphere there were visible signs of entrances.

Gleason turned on the science station's scanner, getting a closer look at the objects. " The sphere's coated in graviton particles, and the boxes are showing a dimensional anomaly, but there's a definite temporal reading being emitted from them."

" What do you think the anomaly means?" Walker asked.

" That's not our problem, our problem's to get these things - wait, there's something else. Putting it up," Gleason said, pressing a few controls on the console. The viewscreen centered on three floating objects. One of them resembled a missile with a spherical aft section with stubby wings. A long dome topped the hull forward of the bow, and below it were what looked like missile launchers. The other object reminded Gleason of an escape pod, but it clearly wasn't. On closer inspection the object resembled a shuttle craft that didn't have any windows or viewing ports. The next ship was what looked like a dartlike rocketship, sleek and long with flat nacelles. Gleason checked over each of the larger ships through the scanner.

" The larger ships have different engines designs, the saucer and the ship with the dome on the top's very generalised in design, with only a bridge, an engineering section, but I can't pick up any living quarters. The dart ship looks very advanced with something similar to our hyperdrive engine."

" Maybe it's from a universe similar to ours." Walker suggested.

" Maybe." Gleason agreed, but in truth he wasn't so positive about the origins of that one. " We can beam the sphere and the boxes on board the ship, no problem, the thing that looks like a shuttlecraft can be tractored into the shuttlebay."

The doors of the turbolift opened, and Mitchell walked in. Mitchell was one Manheims's assistants. " I see the rift's opened again."

Gleason nodded. " Yep." He grinned, and the others grinned as well.

* * *

><p>The sphere was taken to a lab not too far from the Daedalus and the two other boxes were also inside but Gillan wasn't interested in them. They were for Manheim and the others, and whilst Gillan was annoyed that she was being delayed once more she was intrigued by the new sphere.<p>

One of her technicians held a scanner and when she approached him, he reported. " This things awash with graviton particles."

" Why would it be awash with graviton particles?" She asked him, intrigued.

" Not sure, my guess would be this sphere came into contact with a wormhole, or a black hole. But there's no sign of damage, which is surprising. If it was a black hole then the laws of physics would have it crushed by the gravity. By the way, I did a quantum dating check. This sphere's over 340 years old, and the metal's an alloy I can't even being to understand, with elements not in any of the databases salvaged from any of the ships, and this scanner's connected to the Trill and Vulcan databases as well. I'm unable to scan the interior, just like the experimental crew on the Defiant so I can't tell for sure what's inside."

Gillan nodded. One of the drawbacks of discovering new technologies was that they needed to check whether something similar existed in any of the universes already discovered, and it was rare whenever something turned up that didn't make any sense.

" Have you opened it yet?"

" No, we were about to."

Gillan waved at the technicians and the guards who were armed with derivatives of the Defiant's hand phasers. " Open it up, be ready and keep your weapons ready for anything." She ordered, first to the technicians, and the last to the guards. This sphere was unknown and anything could be inside, and since they still didn't understand the physics of the rift then whatever was inside might still be alive. The fact they couldn't scan inside was another reason for the paranoia.

The technicians grabbed hold of the wheel and turned it. A giant body fell out. Gillan screamed at the sight, getting control of herself when she got a good look at the alien. It was like a humanoid bull, reminding her of the Minotaur, the part man part bull creature of legend, only this creature was real. The head and the torso were huge, and it's hands were clearly of a race that was technically advanced.

One of the technicians went inside the sphere. It was bare with only a massive couch that supported the alien's massive body, and a small computer station built into the wall. He held up the scanner in his hand and ran some scans, and poked his head outside the sphere. " There's no other creature in here, but there's a computer station, and I've got access. The system's quite basic."

Embarrassed by her reaction to the alien, Gillan ordered. " Download it."

* * *

><p>The boxes were so similar that they looked almost alike. Manheim and his own technicians were running scans over them. So far one of the boxes was made of a metal that was identical to the saucer it came with, so it was likely they'd both been made by the same race. The other one...was complicated. The material it was constructed from was like a non manufactured metal and more organic, but there were other elements that didn't make sense, but Manheim knew so little about it to know what it was yet, so he had no theories.<p>

Finally, he asked the technicians. " Can we open them yet?"

Both teams nodded, and Manheim walked over to the one that had a metal similar to the saucer. The hatch was quite easy to open with a basic magnetic lock. When it was opened and the scientists walked inside, they felt a moment of disorientation. When it passed they gaped in astonishment. The box was bigger on the inside than the outside. Manheim jerked his head around so fast one of the technicians thought his head would twist off.

" Good heavens." He said breathlessly.

As the others explored the ship - yes, he was convinced it was a ship, he examined the controls of the machine, admiring the design but not thinking much of the metallic decor. His attention was diverted to what looked like a studded pepperpot with something that resembled a large camera lens on a stalk on the top dome. Manheim regarded it curiously, it was no taller than he was, about 5 foot tall he estimated. The top of the machine was a dome with two lightbulbs set on the edge of the dome. Between them was an eyestalk, yes he was convinced that was what it was. Beneath the dome was what was described as a grill. Beneath the grill was a row of slats that reminded Manheim of the old fashioned solar panels. Set into the slat row were two arms, and one of them was a silly sink plunger whilst the other one was a stubby arm.

Beneath the arms was a skirt where it was studded with impressions.

Manheim scanned it, remarking to a technician with him. " The alloy's the same as the box. There's also an organic reading inside the machine, so it must be some form of cyborg. We'll check the saucer and see if its got the same creatures on it. Let's check the other box."

By the time Manheim and the other technician left the box, the people working on the other box had found a way of getting it opened. They were just as baffled as Manheim was when they found out how big the box was.

Manheim walked inside, not entirely surprised by the pocket dimension inside the box, after seeing the other one he was convinced both of the boxes were similar in design and idea. The other box wasn't a metallic machine, but it was rather like wood, and it reminded him of a Victorian drawing room. It was wooden but it lined with bookshelves. Dominating the massive room was a console console made of a dark metal with a tube running through the middle of it and reaching for the ceiling.

Manheim gestured for the technicians to come to him. " Don't go too far," he held up his scanner, " This thing's got an incredibly large interior, so I don't want anyone getting lost. Just keep to here until we've downloaded the database of both this ship and the other one."

" You think this is a ship?" One of the technicians asked.

" I'm certain of it. Try and download the database."

" Dr Manehim, you'd better come over here." Someone called from a darkened corner.

Manheim rushed over to the technician, and found out at once what he'd found. A body of a man was slumped against the wall.

* * *

><p>Kellman had presided over dozens of meetings, some of them more bizarre than others, but this one took the cake. Sitting around the table were Gillan and Cole, who were going over the sphere with the bull like alien, Manheim who was examining the so called time machines, Koenig, who was studying the saucer and the cigar shaped missile brought in by the Defiant, Parker who was going over the dart ship, and Mitchell, the cyberneticist.<p>

" Who wants to go first?" He asked. Kellman wanted to get this meeting over with quickly, but he didn't want to start talking and ask the questions individually. He favoured a different approach today.

Gillan put up her hand. " I'll go first," she said, looking at Cole in agreement. The technician nodded resignedly. She sighed. " Our alien's been sent to the xenobiology lab for study, but the preliminary findings have shown the creatures got a remarkably large brain, and when it's alive it's a powerful lifeform. We wont know too much about him until later, but the capsule he was in, the computer database we've downloaded's given us a tremendous amount of information. He's a Nimon, on what his people call the Great Journey of life. The Nimon consume resources of other worlds and cultures, swarming their worlds and consuming their planet's resources. The Great Journey of Life involves a Nimon landing on a planet in one of those capsules brought to the worlds via stations called transmat stations. When the Nimon arrive on the planets, they would then telepathically persuade a representative that the Nimon's the last of its kind and that it merely wanted to survive. To do that the Nimon would offer technology to advance the species."

Manheim frowned. " How do the Nimon do that?"

" The space capsules the Nimon use are dispatched through a black hole gateway through hyperspace, yes hyperspace. The Nimon consume planets quickly, 20 or 30 years or so. In that time the Nimon systematically wipe out the intelligent population, ripping their bioenergy from them which they ingest for food."

Everyone looked at each other at the implications of that statement; a sentient species killing others for food was barbaric.

Gillan carried on, " During that time, the Nimon population drain the planet's energy, using that time to create more space capsules with the ready mineral deposits on the planet, and they reproduce like flies, the population consuming every drop of energy on the planet. Life on those worlds, flora and fauna are consumed. As the planet's being drained, the transmat stations set up a capsule or two to scout out new worlds, and study them from afar. The black holes establish a tunnel in hyperspace. One at the beginning of the journey and one at the end. The holes are created through energy beams tracking matter to one point in space, collapsing it into a singularity. It's very power intensive. When one part of the journey's ended then the original hole collapses because there's no energy to sustain it, but they make excellent observatories. The captive world's used to find a suitable world for the Nimon's next conquest, and then they dispatch a capsule as best as they can through the black hole. It a 70% risk."

" Thats not a good risk." Manheim commented. " So what happened, have we stopped this Great Journey of Life?"

" The risk's better than nothing. Occasionally the Nimon population grows to a point where another world couldn't sustain it, so they split up their race either one or three ways. One branch goes one way and the other goes another, but not the same."

Kellman nodded. " So we've gotten our hands on Nimon technology, what do we do with it?"

Cole answered this one. " We now know teleporting through black holes, whilst dangerous, is feasible. We can create experiments, and maybe we can use it to enhance our already existing hyperspace technology."

Parker snorted. " The dart ship uses hyperspace teleport tech as well, only it doesn't need a black hole. It just involves an energy field that 'drops' the ship out of the space dimension."

Kellman leant forward eagerly. Hyperspace tech was the most important science on Earth, and any way to change or improve it was top priority. " Go on, we'll still investigate the black hole idea but later," he assured Gillan and Cole who didn't look happy and were close to protesting.

" Go on Parker." Kellman repeated.

Parker took a deep breath, reminding himself that this was the only time he would be speaking in front of most of the command team of Facility 4.

" The ship was an early pirate ship, built by a pirate captain known only as The Captain. The Captain was a hyperspace mechanic, one of the greatest of all time, and indeed the engine designs fantastic. The engine doesn't warp space or create a window, it simply drops the ship out of the space dimension, and teleports the ship through hyperspace."

" If it's a pirate ship then what kind of weapons does it have?"

Parker shrugged. " Lasers, photon weapons and missiles of various designs."

Kellman nodded. " What do you recommend for the engine?"

" We have to run tests, both with that matrix and with ours. My team and the hyperspace research dept are still going over the specs, but our drives look similar enough in function and application. We'll need to go over it for a while before we can work on a prototype for the NX class."

Kellman sighed. The NX class, United Earth's first major interstellar design of starship was still years away from development. It was things like this that made the task of building a reliable and efficient engine terrible. Henry Archer and Zefram Cochrane had been brought here at Facility 4 to work on the drive using the alien and parallel technologies. Luckily the space folding warp engine had worked like a charm and was now fitted onboard the NX class and other ships, but the warp hyperdrive used by Earth for years was too slow, no matter what the range of travel. Earth wanted an engine capable of travelling anywhere without resorting to warp technology levels.

Kellman nodded. " Work on it with Cochrane and Archer. Anything else?"

Koenig nodded. " The saucer, one of the boxes, and the missile ship belong to two cybernetic races. One is the Cybermen, and the other are known as the Daleks. The Cybermen are miracles of cybernetics, but their history's unique. The simplest narrative's that Earth had a twin world, a planet called Mondas. The database has over 6,900 pages on the planet, and it looks more or less like Earth with the landmasses, only they were in the wrong places, such as Africa where South America should be, like normal paternal twins only they show a heaviness from one of their parents. Mondas was thrown off its axis, and sent hurtling through space, and the population was forced underground. As the centuries passed, the Mondasians discovered their people were growing weak, the lifespan shortening and limbs becoming weaker. So their scientists and doctors made experiments in bionics and cybernetics. They devised spare parts for their bodies until all but their brains could be replaced. The brain was altered and all emotion was removed because they considered them weaknesses. Until that came the Mondasians worked on their research. Cybernetic limbs allowed them to move faster, lift tremendous weights, and generations later it was perfectly normal, and later the Mondas civilisation was dedicated, not just for survival but also for perfection. When the emotions were removed, they decided to conquer the galaxies, and they swarmed the galaxies when they developed spaceflight. They conquered over 100 worlds before they returned to Earth, their planet was equipped with a propulsion unit to navigate through space more efficiently. They became logical beings, only worse than the Vulcans, who still have emotions in some form. When they returned to earth they tried to steal the planets energy, but it was too much for them and then their world was destroyed when it absorbed too much."

" What about this ship?"

" The Cybermen from the other worlds experimented, and then they swarmed through space, converting other races into creatures like themselves. Some of them create massive empires, and others become nomadic, converting race after race into Cybermen."

Kellman sighed. " Be careful with them, study them but don't take any risks with the Cybermen, they sound like the sort of bunch the Vulcans frown on. Don't revive them. What can we learn from them besides becoming logical cyborgs?"

" We can learn more about robotics, bionics, cybernetics, life support systems for people who've been crippled. The Cybermen's suits and armour are composed of metallo plastic alloys - metal and plastic composites. Their ship's designed for war, so the computer and weapon systems are incredibly powerful, maybe on par with the Daedalus or the Defiant."

" Right. Anything on the saucer and the box aliens?" Kellman asked, having heard more than enough of the Cybermen.

" The saucer and the box were created by the same race, the Daleks. The Cybermen have a file on them, and it's not a pretty one. The Daleks are conquerors, and we had to dig deep into their computer to find out the details. The Cybermen first encountered them when they found a wrecked ship on a planet, it had been there for over 400 years. The Cybermen revived them and the Daleks wiped them out."

Gillan snorted. " Friendly sort."

" The Daleks, originally known as the Kaleds but are now the mutated remains, are genetically engineered lifeforms. The Daleks originate from a planet called Skaro, a planet that's been torn apart by war and radiation."

Manheim whistled. " Radiation can be a hot bath for mutations, even if the older population dies then the new generations adapt, and the mutation persists."

Koenig nodded. " The historical teams are working on it, but the Daleks basic history is this. Skaro was inhabited by two Humanoid races, the Kaleds and the Thals, and they both locked themselves into a dirty nuclear war. The Kaled scientists were lead by Davros, a crippled mutated scientist himself who lived on a life support machine in the form of an advanced wheelchair. Davros experimented with the mutations, accelerating them to determine their ultimate form, and what he created he placed in a metal war machine. Davros also tampered with the development of the mutants, removing the emotions and augmenting hatred and aggression. The Daleks are the ultimate in racial cleansing, they want to create a universe where no other lifeforms except the Daleks exist. Their conditioned to survive, and they and Davros both believe that the only way to do that's to conquer and become the dominant species. Since then the Daleks have swarmed over the cosmos, conquering and enslaving other lifeforms."

" What about their ships?" Gillan asked curiously, disturbed by what she'd just heard, but then again so was everyone else.

" The Dalek ship's powered by fusion reaction, which creates static electricity for their casings. I've got some of the engineers working on it to find out how it works and to see if we can use it for our own ships. Their weapons include antimatter drills, beams of pure antimatter. Absolutely pure. Nuclear missiles of various types. The ships a war machine with a dedicated science and astrometic labs of incredible quality. The box is a time machine, and the file on the saucer says it was created because of an enemy of the Daleks, a time traveller called the Doctor. This Doctor's foiled many of the Daleks plans, the latest one was where the Daleks tried to conquer everything by using a weapon called a time destructor. The weapon would accelerate time in one direction, aging it till it was destroyed."

" Thank you Koenig," Kellman replied, shaken by the knowledge the Daleks were a violent culture that prized war. " Manheim, what did you learn about the time machines?"

" Their both similar," Manheim started. " Their both larger on the inside, suggesting a pocket universe or an expanded space. We're not sure yet, but with help we should find the information for cracking the Dalek language and accessing their database. My work's been focused on removing the Daleks from one machine, and discovering there's a labyrinth in the other machine."

Kellman put his hand on the table. " When you've gotten access to both, what do you hope to discover?"

" There are theories that state that large universes offer the best solution to time travel, the notion of an expanded dimension inside smaller objects offers a chance to discover if its true or not. The Dalek time machine'll be studied to see if we can create our own pocket dimension technology. Only it's likely to take decades, if not centuries whilst we work out the specs on it." Kellman admitted.

**A/N what do you think? Chapter 6, everything changes. **


	6. Chapter 6

**An Extract from " History of Space exploration - 22nd century volume." Printed in 2340. **

The Starship Mayflower was the most awaited starship in the history of the then United Earth fleet. Designed with intergalactic surveying in mind for the future, and to lay down the building blocks of exploring other galaxies, Mayflower had another mission; to escape Earth and to begin a new Human race in another galaxy. It was the start of a new beginning, and many supported the mission in what it stood for.

The reason for this radical thinking was that the Milky way galaxy was getting too big for Humans, who were exploring more and more of it all the time, with the Vulcans looking over their shoulder, but since the Vulcans knowledge of the galaxy was limited it wasn't a problem. The Mayflower crew and passengers were determined to look for something new, they knew of course they would make mistakes. Those mistakes would be theirs and not the Vulcans.

The Mayflower was launched a year before the first NX class starship, and much bigger than an NX and three times as longer and broad. Containing farming, civil engineering and weaponry, Mayflower was prepared for anything. The United Earth government had allowed her construction because of pressure from the Vulcans, and because of the data received by the Galaxy probe launched 6 years beforehand. Powered by the latest in hyperdrive and space fold technology, the Mayflower was launched. She was never seen again.

**An Extract from United Earth. Printed in 2213. **

Although the Vulcans and the Trills had shown themselves to be benevolent allies, the amount of mistrust between them and Humans was overpowering. Unlike the Andorians, the Tellarites and the Xyrillians, who'd become allies even though the Andorians had distrusted humans due to their belief humans were ' Vulcan puppets ' they found out later humans were more honourable than the Vulcans gave them credit for. The Humans found they had a lot in common with all their alien allies, whether the xenophobic movement wanted to admit it or not.

There was growing tension between the Vulcan High command and the United Earth government, and it was due to the hyperdrive technology. Human scientists had given them scraps of knowledge, and whilst the theory was enough to keep the cautious Vulcan scientists busy, the VHC wanted the technology fast, and they were willing to go to great lengths and forgo their morals to obtain them. Thirty attempts were made to steal hyperdrive technology, but they couldn't find it. It was as if the knowledge didn't exist.

The Andorians contact with Earth gave the fledging explorers the information they needed to understand enough about their own relationship with Vulcan, giving the government an idea of why the VHC wanted hyperspace so badly. This strengthened human mistrust of the Vulcans, further damaging relations between the two powers for a long time afterward. The Trills didn't have the same treatment, and hyperspace physicists were allowed to give all their major allies hyperspace theories after the first 7 years of the NX exploration programs.

**Exploration of the galaxy. An extract. Printed 2201. **

Warp drive would've slowed down human expansion, but hyperspace quickened it. Ships were sent deeper and deeper into space, and as more planets were colonised, the humans spread out and made new contacts with other races. They encountered the Cardassians, and they barely survived their first skirmishes with the Dominion of the Gamma Quadrant expedition sent in 2045. As more and more advanced ships were developed, humans went from explorers and colonists, prospective traders to conquerors. They carved out a significant amount of space, and they showed other races what they were capable of.

They opened deals with the Deltans, the Coridans, the Betazoids, the Bajorans and the Ossarions. Their alliances brought not just trinkets, but new ideas. The NX program was still developing from these encounters, and when they were first launched they showed the true mastery of space.

Then they met the Breen, and the first contact was bloody. The Breen were eventually pushed back, and they were swiftly defeated. From that moment on the Breen system was closely monitored. The Kzinti relations, however, weren't as effective. The Kzin, xenophobic and arrogant, launched attack after attack, and whilst diplomats tried to call for peace, the Kzinti wouldn't listen. Finally the government gave up, declaring enough was enough and, ignoring protests from the Vulcans, lashed out. The retaliation was so massive, so merciless, even to this day, a hundred years later the effects are still felt. It sent a clear message to other aliens; do not antagonise humanity.

The human ships jumped into Kzinti territory with orders to exterminate all Kzinti, and reduce their worlds to rubble. The fleet, armed with fusion and neutron beams, and experimental weaponry based on plasma technology, destroyed the Kzinti fleets and worlds. Vulcan and Trill filed official protests, but the government didn't listen. The Kzinti finally realised they'd made a mistake by provoking the humans, tried to surrender, but their pleas for mercy were ignored. The Humans destroyed ship after ship, incinerating their colonies, one by one. Finally the fleet came to the homeworld where they met a last desperate fleet. The Siege at Kzin lasted 3 weeks, small ships launched hit and run attacks, drawing ships off to be destroyed, and sometimes they actually appeared in the skies above the cities and fire plasma torpedoes. The Kzinti, desperate to survive, sent a desperate call for help to the Vulcans and a fleet was launched, but they would arrive too late and all they would find would be ashes.

The final assault came when the Human fleet appeared, literally, in their midst. The battle lasted for 3 hours with minimal casualties on the human side and massive casualties on the Kzinti.

Then the homeplanet of their enemy.

The Kzinti tried one last time to surrender, and once again the humans didn't reply. Kzin was subjected to plasma and photonic torpedo and fusion, neutron and plasma beam bombardments that lasted for hours, but the most devastating weapon was the use of mass drivers. Hurling asteroids at the planet was the most devastating thing the humans could've done, but they didn't care. Then they stopped, turned around and left. The Vulcans tried to force them to clean up the mess, but they backed off when they themselves were threatened. It was known already humans were starting to become more and more technically advanced, but the Vulcans were not sure at this point how advanced they were. The Trills themselves had had conflicts with the Kzinti, and quietly protested the massive levels of destruction humanity had left in the wake of their war.

The Earth government, the victors of the short war which had lasted only 2 months, were harsh with the Kzinti; the government officials were executed in front of the population, and the humans ripped open the ozone layer, polluting the planet further. Monitoring stations were set up in secret with the intent of keeping an eye on the Kzinti.

**The United Earth Commonwealth. A History. **

The United Earth Commonwealth was the Earth Empire, connected by hyperspace jump gates, and conduits linking worlds together. Each world grew populations fast and the inhabitants dedicated themselves to continuing the human race and the numerous achievements of the time period, and the scientists pioneered new propulsion technologies that Zefram Cochrane had opened the doors to.

Each world started building starships in commissions from Starfleet and the Cargo Alliance. A new space faring corporation was developed to explore planets marked by Starfleet, specifically dedicated to study ancient races and improve human knowledge of archaeology.

**The Wormhole Subway Network: A history that surpasses hyperspace. Written by Alex Archer, descendent from Jonathan Archer, first true hyperspace explorer. 2561. **

Scientists had always believed wormholes were theoretical until the existence of higher dimensions were discovered in the 21st century. The problem the early theories shared was that they required advanced technology, but the 21st and 22nd century scientists, and hyperspace physicists had discovered that wormholes existing in hyperspace didn't need exotic matter to keep them stable.

The 23rd century was where the first theories were turned into practical experimentation, and the discovery of the Bajoran and Barzan wormholes in the early 2200s allowed scientists to research the structure of wormholes for the first time.

Ambassador Soval relaxed into his meditation, lowering his mental barriers to strengthen the leash he had on his emotions. No Vulcan would ever admit it openly of course, but meditation was the most relaxing time in a Vulcan's life. Unfortunately Soval's mind wasn't relishing the new level of ordered peace and calm this time, no he was thinking about the recent events. The senseless way the humans had retaliated against the Kzinti was unprecedented, and as the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth it was his responsibility to inform the humans of the stance the Vulcan High Command took on the slaughtering of the Kzinti. The Kzinti had never been a popular race, their arrogant xenophobia had finally caught up with them after attacking an opponent as emotionally violent as humans.

Privately Soval thought they'd gotten what they'd deserved. The Kzinti had waged dozens of wars with other races for decades, and it was a logical conclusion that eventually they would push someone too far, but even Soval was horrified by how the humans had done it. No race used mass drivers, but it had the desired outcome. The Kzinti had surrendered in droves, with the secret intent of killing the human invaders when they arrived in force, but the humans weren't as naive as the Kzinti thought. Hundreds had died afterward when they tried to resist the humans, who were forever adaptable, and the ruins of the cities were levelled. Now they were struggling to rebuild their world, with the humans helping them to show them all life was sacred. It had been a harsh lesson for the Kzinti to learn, but the humans were making sure they learnt it. The humans were harsh with them, stopping them from building space craft, but most of all they were living in what could be described as concentration camps. The humans, who'd abandoned such barbaric practices, had claimed that Kzin was theirs, and if the Vulcans cared they could come and help them themselves. This came with a warning, if the Vulcan High Command collaborated with the Kzinti in anyway, Vulcan would receive 40 fold of what the Kzinti endured, their cities on Vulcan would be destroyed in nuclear holocaust, and millions would die as a result of Vulcan arrogance. The humans had told them espionage would not be tolerated, and that Vulcans should stop trying to interfere in internal human affairs.

Soval held in a mental sigh at the continuous demands he would have to send out to the humans. The High Command had been desperate to acquire human hyperspace technology for years, but after the humans got into space and encountered other races they'd learnt how the Vulcans treated other races. Soval knew he was wasting his time, but he'd been ordered by High Command to find a way to make the humans give up hyperspace to them. The Andorians, Tellarites, Xyrillians and the Trill had been given access to human jumpgates, which enabled access to different parts of the galaxy they'd never before been able to access, which was frustrating. Then humans had developed a form of warp drive that was superior to the warp drives employed by the Vulcans, and they'd given the basics to Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite, Xyrillian and Trill scientists.

He was disturbed from his meditation by the mental energy he felt in his companion, who was also meditating. " It is difficult for me to meditate with your emotions seeping into the room T'Pol." He admonished.

He opened his eyes as he felt the emotions recede, and he saw at once his protege's impassive face, but Soval was good at reading expressions through emotional barriers. She was ashamed of herself for allowing herself to be caught out, he saw.

Realising that he wasn't going to get much more meditation done after 3 hours of it already, he asked her, " What troubles you, tell me?" He asked, now he'd identified her emotion. Anxiety. He felt a stab of irritation before he suppressed it, she'd met dozens of alien races already. Why was she anxious?

T'Pol, seeing she couldn't lie or bluff her way out of her emotional misconduct, replied at last. " I have never met a human before."

Soval nodded, " I see. T'Pol, I have known you're a science officer on the Selaya, surely you encountered human exploration missions?"

" We did, but I didn't speak to them."

Soval nodded again, understanding the problem. Just because crew members travelled on board ships didn't mean they met the aliens the ship encountered along the way.

" Humans are an emotional people, irrational and yet rational at the same time." Soval said, but T'Pol didn't understand what he'd said, and he could see that by looking at her. He explained the paradox to her. " While they are emotional they are far more rational than races like the Andorians or the Klingons."

" Is it true humans can be savage?" T'Pol asked.

Soval didn't reply at once, he was trying to work out the best way of answering it and he was curious where T'Pol had heard that one. Humans could be incredibly savage, and what they did to Kzin had become the news of the galaxy. The Vulcan Ambassador knew many warlike cultures were now regarding humans as a possible target, but he was sure they could take care of themselves.

" The humans have come a long way from the time when they fought each other, and they've learnt their lessons well. The Kzin, in my view, made the mistake of believing they were an easy target." Soval replied finally.

T'Pol wouldn't let it go. " What about their threat to Vulcan?"

" That was different, and it wasn't the logical thing for High Command to do. Ever since humans have entered the galaxy, many times without our blessing, High Command have watched them, and the humans have encountered and opened trade negotiations with other races. The humans have opened doors to places they've never visited before, including our own exploratory missions.

" Since hyperspace technology's becoming increasingly advanced the High Command's tried on various occasions to acquire it, but the humans have refused. They've built permanent jump gates in various systems to send ships to parts in the galaxy our people have never ventured but had observed previously in the past. They've given us access, but they've stopped us from examining them." Soval added.

" The humans are prideful, that makes them dangerous." T'Pol said as if that was the end of the evaluation, and Soval regarded her sternly.

" Do not judge the humans like that, T'Pol. They can be dangerous, but they've gathered more information about the galaxy than we have in the last 3 centuries. They've launched hyperspace probes to other galaxies to chart them. They've opened hyperspace portals on worlds connecting them to their commonwealth."

Before T'Pol could make a comeback, a voice from the comm system called to them. " _Ambassador Soval, we are approaching Earth system now." _

Soval acknowledged the message, and they watched as the starscape showed their cruiser drop out of warp.

As they approached Earth, Soval showed his fellow Vulcan the view of Earth. T'Pol had seen _Minshara_ class worlds before, but she'd never seen Earth before. There wasn't much that was special to her about the planet, but she was amazed about the size and scale of the space complex orbiting the planet.

The station resembled a massive silver-blue sphere with four smaller spheres connecting them on struts to the main sphere. T'Pol's eyesight was good and she saw the building and maintenance facilities of the Human spacefleet, which contained pens with the space hanger doors opened or closed. She could see with the doors opened 16 Earth ships she had never seen before. She could see the saucer section and two nacelles on each of them. She pointed them out to Soval.

" The NX class starships. Earth's first major interstellar starships, equipped with the latest in human hyperspace technology. The nacelles are the human's secondary faster than light system."

T'Pol didn't understand why she was drawn to one of the ships. When she looked back on this moment she would regret her earlier assumptions of Humans.


	7. Chapter 7

Launch of the NX fleet.

Above the Earth the spacedock facility personnel were going about their business, and only a few of them were aware of the activity taking place inside the dock facility. The NX class starships had been despatched from the building yard in the Facility 4 station, where they'd been under construction since the day their design was conceived on Earth. It was the oldest trick in the book, building their new ships inside the spacedock, in plain sight. Instead the ships were being constructed elsewhere beyond the Vulcans prying eyes, and interference. Starfleet had been building the fake ships, but inside they were empty aside from the life support systems. The Vulcans had spent the last few years trying to gain access to the ship inside, convinced the one ship was in fact the testbed for new Earth propulsion technology, something the Vulcans wanted to obtain. Security onboard the station and the faked ship were absolute, but that didn't stop the Vulcans trying. One night the ship was removed, sent back to the complex in Facility 4, and the real ships were brought in and installed inside the dock complex, with many of them hidden from the Vulcans.

Only one wasn't hidden, the NX - 01. The Enterprise. Enterprise was set to become the flagship of the United Earth Commonwealth, the leading ship of exploration of the commonwealth.

Jonathan Archer and his chief engineer, Charles 'Trip' Tucker were seated in a workbee, going over the lean silver - blue hull of the ship, admiring the ships beauty. Composed of Naquadah, duranium and tritanium, and polycrystalline hull plating, Enterprise was more stronger physically than other ships, and the shield grid made her stronger.

" Just think, Trip. In a couple weeks time we'll be on that ship, far away and away from the Vulcans." Archer whispered, gazing lovingly at the new ship. His ship.

Trip smirked at the expression on his old friend's face. " When're we scheduled to leave?"

" 3 weeks from now. The others are almost ready as well." Archer replied, gazing at his ship hull colour, admiring the gleam reflected by the sun and the station lighting.

Both men didn't make an effort to hide their glee at their imminent departure, and they didn't need too either. The NX class was the jewel of the Earth spacefleet, and would make new strides in exploring space and making new and greater discoveries without their allies looking over their shoulders. Archer didn't have a problem with the Trills, they were far more emotional than the Vulcans and easier to speak to. The Vulcans, on the other hand, Archer had never hidden his annoyance about them. They were always looking over Starfleet's shoulders, stalling them and giving the same annoying message, " You're not ready," it was frustrating.

Tucker pointed at the ships nacelles, " Hard to believe our hyperdrive engine's different from what Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix was."

Archer nodded. Hyperspace technology had brought in new ideas, but since his visit to Facility 4 2 years ago, he'd seen how his father and others had worked on designing a new engine that didn't rely on nacelles the same way the Phoenix did. By dropping out of the space dimension though a hyperspace wormhole ships could now cross vaster distances than older engines could.

It made Archer proud that his father had been one of the driving forces behind such a movement in human history. People of the future will have much to thank him for, Archer thought to himself.

Tucker carried on, " We'll be testing the drive the day after tomorrow."

Archer grinned. " Neptune and Pluto in 3 minutes and back, a month from now we'll be jumping to areas of the galaxy the Vulcans have never thought possible. Magic. Lets have a look at the lateral sensors?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Archer clamped his jaws and mouth shut as his stomach suddenly went up into his mouth. For all his friends talents, Trip was something of an adrenaline junkie when it came to maintenance inspections. It didn't help that these stupid pods were smaller than they had to be and faster than they ought to be.

Tucker saw his reaction, smirking, " If I didn't know any better," he chided, " I'd say you were afraid of flying."

" The only thing I'm afraid of are the scrambled eggs I had for breakfast."

Tucker chuckled, " You're gonna be dreaming of scrambled eggs a month after our mission begins, I hear the protein resequencers aren't an improvement."

Archer glared at him, " Hence the reason I brought on board a chef. I think you'll be impressed."

Actually it had been a resounding decision of the new NX captains to bring chefs on their new ships rather than rely on technology to give them food. Ships of the past - cargo ships, the ancient space shuttles of the 20th-21st centuries, the crews all ate food concentrates, and whilst the NX class had those same nutritional facilities they also had the chance to bring better foods to the crew.

Archer was silent for a long moment as he thought about the NX class, and the things he and 16 other officers selected for the NX fleet had learnt and sworn to general secrecy.

The NX class fleet had been constructed in the Facility 4 system mostly because the technological researchers were there, and no one would particularly want to travel from Earth to Facility 4 and back continuously. The research material was classified, only those in the high echelons of Command were aware of them. Archer had seen technologies beyond his wildest dreams; a ship from the future, 2 ships larger on the inside, and contributors to the hyperspace engines, and dimensional sensors to take detailed scans of the dimensions outside Earth's solar system.

Enterprise and her sister ships were armed to the teeth, Archer knew. He'd seen frontline action during the Earth - Kzinti war, and he'd watched as that moronic race had continuously hounded human ships. After spending most of his adult life on starships and meeting hostile races, he was glad Enterprise, his ship, would be ready, or as ready as the Vulcans and Trills believed.

Archer had been expecting something less advanced when he'd boarded the NX ships for the first time, a more modern version to the regular hyperdrive starships Starfleet had in service already, but he'd been wrong. Instead of the hull been constructed of duranium-tritanium alloy, the NX class were made of metals and alloys, even a polycrystalline material stronger than duranium!

The ships were fast, faster than the warp ships the Vulcans had, thanks to their hyperdrive and their fold drive. Archer wasn't too sure about the last one, he was one of the traditionalists who believed the conventional warp engine was basic, primitive and should be in museums. Enterprise was one of the most advanced ships, many years ahead of her time, but Archer reminded himself the ship was a testbed, like all NX class ships, for new technologies and ideas.

Trip interrupted his train of thoughts, " Did you hear about that mission Ramon of the Intrepid had to run, ferrying that Klingon to Qo'nos?"

Archer nodded gravely. " Yeah. I'm glad he did it, and not someone who's actually fought them." He added. " I'm more concerned about the Suliban that attacked him."

" Didn't he report that the Suliban were part of a Temporal Cold war?"

Ramon's report on the Temporal Cold War had opened up debates on time travel, debates which had been going on since the Dalek Time machine, the TARDIS and the Defiant came through the rift in the Facility 4 system. Archer, like all NX captains and command crews, had been given information, information that classified where the time machines had come from, but all the time travel technologies had been classified by Command. The time technology was being researched even now, but it would be sometime before the basics were fully understood, and an even longer time before time travel was turned into a viable exploratory tool. The Cold war's existence had made Command worried about a potential time war, and they were studying the possibility of creating defences against paradoxes and attacks on the commonwealth worlds. As a result captains had been called in and given standing orders to obtain intelligence about the war, and an idea of why the war was even going on.

" Yeah. It makes sense that in the future we'll have more information about time travel, but that a cold war's been started on it boggles the mind. You wonder what makes a cold war possible, but with time travel it can screw up everything you know." Archer said, shaking his head. " How're the other ships doing?"

Trip snorted, " We're ready to go. Do you think the Vulcans will try and stop the launch?"

" I'd be surprised if they didn't. I remember when the first explorer ships were launched, the Vulcans claimed they weren't ready, and then again the Mayflower expedition. They weren't pleased about that one."

Trip said nothing, his mind on the Mayflower's ambitious expedition. A generational ship to another galaxy, to settle down somewhere else. It was a breathtaking and adventurous idea. The only thing was Starfleet command had heard nothing from them since they left.

" What do you think happened to them?" Trip asked.

Archer shrugged, " I dunno."

" Do you think the Vulcans sabotaged the ship?"

Archer shrugged again. " Mayflower's expeditionary flight plan wasn't charted until the last minute. That was deliberate. The Vulcans up-till that point hadn't bothered sabotaging our ships, when they heard the news of where the Mayflower was heading they were as surprised as anyone else. They'd known our hyperdrives can take us distances they've never before experienced, so there's not much they could do. They couldn't beam on our ships when the hyperdrive shields are on, and they know that. I think when we send ships out deeper and deeper into space, probes into different galaxies, then we may figure out what happened to the Mayflower."

" How're the Trills taking the launch?" Trip asked.

Archer didn't answer, his mind on the Trills and their ancient calm. Unlike the Vulcans the Trills were more emotional, but they were as experienced as the Vulcans were in space travel, but they were more honest. That was what Archer liked about them, their honesty. They told humans straight about what they thought was a wise move. They knew that the Vulcans were deliberately holding back human development, and thanks to the Trills, they knew why.

It was because Humans were irrational, and that Vulcans couldn't define human beings. With other races it was easy; Andorians were arrogant and hostile, the Klingons were driven by their emotions, the Tellarites were stubborn. With humans it was different, humanity seemed to have all those traits, but the Vulcans were baffled by humans when one moment they were exhibiting traits you'd find in Klingons, before they suddenly embraced logic.

" They've always told us what to do in space travel but unlike the Vulcans they've been more honest. They believe we're ready for launch." Archer replied at last.

* * *

><p>There were 16 NX class ships in dock. The NX - 01, Enterprise. The NX - 02, Columbia. The NX - 03, the Endeavour. The NX - 04, Phoenix, named after the famous and first human hyperdrive ship. The NX - 05, Cochrane, after the inventor of hyperdrive. The NX - 06, Sloan, after Cochrane's co-pilot. The NX - 07, Hardy, the third crewmember of the Phoenix launch in 2063. The NX - 08 James Cook named after the famous explorer. The NX - 09, Caledonia. The NX - 10, Drake. The NX - 11, Vasco De Gama. The NX - 12, Livingstone. The NX - 13, Columbus. The NX - 14, Armstrong. The NX - 15, Amelia Earhart. The NX - 16, Prometheus. The majority of these ships had been named after, for obvious reasons, famous explorers who'd helped expand human knowledge of their world and Archer had been made captain of the NX-01, and it was a source of pride for him. He'd worked hard at it, learning the ropes of interstellar diplomacy. At the moment he wasn't happy, and he was regretting that he was the captain of the new flagship.<p>

" Why're we even taking this Vulcan?" Trip was asking as he and Archer left the turbolift on the bridge. Archer sighed. The Vulcans had fired their salvo after realising that the humans weren't going to heed their requests to hold back the launch of the new fleet. They'd wrestled with command to make a compromise, and they had. Command had authorised, reluctantly, to allow one Vulcan to become the science officer of the NX-01, the Enterprise. Archer's ship. Archer had always thought the Vulcans held some sort of deep rooted resentment for him, but it never occurred to them that Starfleet appointed whoever they thought right for the position was none of their business.

" Because," Archer ground out angrily; he wasn't angry with his friend, but sometimes Trip didn't know when to let go of an argument. " they pushed command into a corner, and command allowed them to appoint one of their people to keep them happy." Trip still wasn't letting this go, testing his captains patience even more. " I thought the whole point was to get away from the Vulcans." Tucker protested, images of Vulcans quoting verbatim from a rule book in his mind, only for him to kill didn't say a word; it was well known that Vulcans preferred unemotional environments, and the close contact environment of a starship run by humans was considered a taboo by the Vulcans. Archer didn't expect the Vulcan assigned to Enterprise to remain as part of her crew for a long time.

" Trip, Vulcans can't stand emotions, so a starships' full of 'em," Archer said, putting his thoughts into words. " It's likely she'll leave soon."

Trip sat down on the couch of the ready room when the door chimed.

Archer grimaced, " Here we go. Come!"

The door opened, revealing the Vulcan woman. She was shorter than Archer by the head, she looked very much like any other Vulcan, but she was more attractive to look at, and her skintight bodysuit didn't help matters. Archer had never really been good at telling how old Vulcans were, and he couldn't even guess how old this one was, but he remembered his manners just in time. He also saw she was different from others of her species but wasn't sure what it was. All he knew was she was different.

The Vulcan handed him a padd, " Subcommander T'Pol, reporting for duty. This shows I've reported for duty at 13.00 hours."

Archer took the padd, gave it a cursory glance before nodding. He looked up, intending to give the woman the lecture he'd planned since he'd found out about her coming on his ship, but she looked uncomfortable, like she'd smelt something unpleasant.

Archer didn't hesitate in pointing it out, if this woman was going to be onboard his ship she'd better get used to the unpleasant details on the ship, whether she liked them or not. " Is something wrong?" He asked, keeping his tone polite, but in truth he didn't really care. Get used to it, he thought.

T'Pol seemed to realise she'd shown her discomfort at the scent in the room, and stiffened, pushing the offending smell out of her mind.

" No, sir." She replied. She wasn't a very skilled liar.

Archer looked around, trying to figure out why his new...science officer was uncomfortable. He found it almost at once; it was his dog, Porthos.

" I forgot, Vulcans have a heightened sense of smell. I trust my pet isn't offensive to you?" He said with a growing smile; it wasn't everyday he watched Vulcans squirm. Vulcans were a very prim and arrogant people, and it felt good to give them a kick once in a while. A Trill, on the other hand, would've been too polite. There was a difference between racial arrogance and politeness. The Vulcans weren't interested in exploration, at least not to Human knowledge, but the Trills sent out ships to distant areas all the time to explore. They did this with the same wanderlust as humans.

Archer wished he had a Trill as science officer instead of this Vulcan, at least Trills knew how to crack a joke. It would help if they were joined, all that knowledge and experience.

T'Pol detected at once the trap the human captain had laid out. Humans took offence to things very easily, and Vulcans had learnt that humans didn't like their flaws pointed out. T'Pol knew this wasn't the consulate, this was a starship. She would need to be very careful not to cause any friction between her and the crew.

" I've been trained to tolerate unpleasantness." Deep down she was disgusted the humans would bring their pets on board. Granted, T'Pol hadn't seen all earth animals, but the dog's stench was repugnant, but she knew better than to say it.

That was a low blow, and T'Pol saw at once that it hadn't been well received. She could see the anger behind the captain's eyes. Archer took a deep breath. " Ok, I'll be honest with you. I don't want you here on my ship, but I'm not what you Vulcans think. I'm not going to escort you to an airlock when we get underway. I'll tolerate you for the time being, but if you even think of giving me the Vulcan High Command's propaganda, you will regret it. This is a human ship, and you will obey our rules at all times. I also want you to know that if I say one thing one day and have them picked to pieces the next by the VHC, I'll know who I'm gonna blame."

T'Pol didn't look concerned about the threat, just like Archer'd expected, she replied evenly. " My mission is not for espionage, but to assist you."

Archer leant back comfortably in his seat, his contempt so thick you could cut it with a plasma torch, " Your superiors don't think we can flush a toilet without one of you to assist us. If your people wanted to assist us you wouldn't have tried sabotaging the development of our space technology. I don't know your reasons, but I frankly don't care. Instead of speaking to us about your concerns you sabotaged our work, undermining our efforts behind our backs. Did it not occur to you to speak to us, like civilised people?"

Judging from the expression on the Vulcan woman's face, the answer was no. Archer wasn't so surprised. He'd dealt with enough Vulcans over the years to know in spite of their logical philosophy they rarely used it with other races. They believed that since Humans were illogical then they should be dealt with quickly by going behind their backs.

Archer wasn't really bothered by what this woman said or did, but he was telling the truth about spying on the mission Enterprise was going to undertake. If she didn't like something she would have to speak to him personally, not go round and cry to Soval.

" I didn't request this mission, Captain. When we depart I will leave gladly." She broke off when the beagle suddenly pawed her leg. Archer watched with amusement at her discomfort, but he said nothing.

Trip had been watching this conversation quietly, watching the Vulcan and trying to make up his own mind about her. He wasn't sure what to make of her, and like his captain he saw she was different.

" You'd have missed an opportunity to get to know us. This mission could last for years, meaning we'd have to get to know ya. Vulcans are a social people, otherwise you'd never have gotten into space." He said breaking his silence at last.

Archer handled the introductions, and when Trip held out his hand T'Pol didn't shake it, stoking the already hot contempt the humans in the room felt for her.

* * *

><p>When T'Pol was shown to where her quarters were, she spent the time she had unpacking her few possessions. Outwardly she appeared calm, like all Vulcans, but inwardly she was thinking that the humans were already insufferable. But they were a fascinating people, she admitted that in her mind.<p>

T'Pol had always been fascinated by humans, like many others of her people. It was a fascination shared by her father, who'd collected human literature frequently, and human games such as poker or chess and sudooku, the latter becoming instantly popular on her world. For an irrational and illogical people humans were gifted in creating logical puzzles that tested the intellect.

T'Pol thought about what Tucker, the engineer had said about socialising. It was true Vulcans were a social people, otherwise their people would never seek out company from fellow Vulcans, but they also demanded solitude when they needed it.

She took out a prized and rare chess set, and set up the pieces on a small desk in her room. She quirked her lips in a small and unseen smile, the only trace of emotion she would show. She wondered what a human coming into her quarters would say if they saw the set. It was hundreds of years old, and the craftsmanship was exquisite.

T'Pol knew, logically the humans had a point, about her people's interference in their development, and she agreed with the captain's point of view about that same interference. The humans could be a reasonable people when they needed to be, and espionage was hardly necessary. Nagging doubts were starting to appear in T'Pol's already rebellious mind...

The Vulcan considered the situation she was in, her superiors had put her on this ship, and they weren't alone. The other ships had Trills on them, she was the only one of her people assigned on an Earth ship. T'Pol thought about her impression of the captain and chief engineer so far; neither had been particularly welcoming towards her, considering their allegations about Vulcan sabotage, they had a right. She'd always agreed humans shouldn't be out in space, but the humans wouldn't listen. They said that sooner or later they would have to leave their system, and there was nothing they could do about it. The captain hadn't bothered making his pet dog stop, nor did he seem concerned with the discomfort she had with the stench. The engineer was someone who was like his captain, but he'd pointed out a flaw with Vulcans, something few humans had managed to achieve.

T'Pol remembered how the humans had pretty much destroyed Kzin, threatening Vulcan with the same treatment if they helped the Kzinti. That had been a terrifying threat, especially with the humans coming up with advanced weapons to destroy and overpower the Kzinti. The VHC were aware of minor skirmishes that Starfleet had with the Klingon empire, and how the Klingons had been outthought and outmaneuvered.

T'Pol wondered why she'd been sent, why a Trill, someone as emotional as humans wouldn't be sent. Was it to improve human- Vulcan relations, or was it something else?

* * *

><p>The launch took place the next day, with Admiral Forrest handling it in the spacedock observation deck. In front of Forrest and some of the other admirals were clustered near a podium, with Vulcan and Trill dignataries nearby, dressed in fine robes, and in the case of the Trills, they were standing there with a look of anticipation and pride for the humans. Before them were millionaires, scientists, engineers and historians, Starfleet officers and even cadets on their best behavior. They were there purely to see history in the making. The NX launch had been the most well waited for moment in space history, when hyperspace starships would be sent deeper into space on long exploratory missions.<p>

The Mayflower launch had been a one off, but the NX wasn't. Forrest smiled at the crowd, his eyes ignoring the stoic Vulcans but the Trills eyes held only encouragement. A deal had been struck between them; the Vulcans would send a science officer on the Enterprise, but the other ships would have a Trill science team attending. Neither race knew Starfleet had been planning for more than just galaxy wide exploration, but they'd gathered it with the power of hyperdrive technology.

Archer was sitting in the captain's chair of Enteprise, like the other captains on the operational NX class ships. To his right was Malcom Reed, tactical officer, to his left was the unwanted T'Pol, and Hoshi Sato, comm officer. Trip was in main engineering, and Travis Mayweather, someone who'd served with Archer before, so the captain knew he could trust the man, was sitting before him. Archer wondered briefly if Travis's father, a captain on a cargo hauler, was watching this moment. He hoped so, the captain of the Horizon had reason to be proud of his son. Archer certainly was.

Archer was glad that Forrest was hurrying this along. He felt butterflys in his stomach, anticipating the rush that came with hyperspace travel.

" When Zefram Cochrane made the first hyperdive flights," the admiral was saying, " and drew the attention of the Trills and the Vulcans, our new friends in the galaxy, we realised we were not alone in the universe. Realising this, our society pulled itself together out of the second dark ages, and since then we have been getting ready to join the interstellar community."

The crowd applauded, stretching the time into minutes.

Forrest carried on, " Today is the day where we cross the threshold. For the last century we've been sending ships powered by Cochrane's hyperspace engine into the galaxy, but those were tiny compared to what is happening today. Baby steps. Today we wading, and how it's time to swim."

The crowd, humans mostly, applauded loudly. Archer knew that on the colony worlds and starships in the galaxy already those cheers were echoing through the galaxy.

A light appeared on Archer's arm rests. He glanced at it before straightening up.

" Prepare to disconnect moorings. Fire thrusters. Mr Mayweather, is our course programmed?"

Mayweather nodded after studying his readouts, " Course for Delta Quadrant ready." Archer smirked when he saw T'Pol jump. Where no Vulcan has gone before...he chortled mentally at the prospect.

Archer tapped the comm on his armrest, " Bridge to main engineering. Trip, is the hyperdrive ready?"

Tucker's voice, full of anticipation came back, " What're we waitin' for, captain?"

Archer chuckled as Forrest's speech droned on. " Detach supports, fire thrusters, take us out."

Forrest, knowing that the NX ships were already leaving, their impulse and gravitic thrusters pushing themselves out, carried on. It had been planned in advance, and he smiled. " Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting to the galaxy, Earth's first space fleet. The NX class." He held up in toast a glass of champagne.

Everyone, the Vulcans excluded, shouted, " The NX class."

On Enterprise, Archer smiled. " Engage hyperdrive. Takes us out there. Engage."

**THE END.**

**I've decided to end it there. The series will continue with another Enterprise hyperdrive fic **


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